Half World: A Novel
*Starred Review* In Untouchable (2011), O’Connor focused on a family tragedy—the death of a wife and mother—that shattered the lives of surviving family members. Half World also examines a tragedy, the CIA’s monstrous MKUltra program that sought to develop “mind control” techniques. Henry March, who is assigned to the program, is more devoted family man and accountant than dashing secret agent, and he’s sent to San Francisco in 1955 to set up a kind of brothel. Prostitutes he hires slip hallucinogenic drugs and other psychoactive compounds into johns’ drinks, and the men are held captive, interrogated, and sometimes tortured by Henry’s coworker, a brutal SFPD detective. Henry documents it all, silently unravels, then simply disappears, taking all his documentation with him. His family unravels, too, in part because the Agency thinks the family is complicit in Henry’s betrayal. Cut to 1972, and Dick, another troubled young agent dragooned into infiltrating radical groups, is also unraveling. He meets Henry’s daughter, who is working to reassemble her life, and he resolves to find Henry—the most honorable act of his less-than-honorable life. O’Connor’s spare prose amplifies the horror of his story. It also compels the reader to inhabit his characters’ lives. Half World is a stunningly grim and emotionally harrowing read and an astute and evocative portrayal of government paranoia during the Cold War and Vietnam War eras. --Thomas Gaughan