Customer Reviews

The Ninth Configuration

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This is a well written and tightly crafted novel. The dialogue, while often full of angst, is witty and clever. The premise of the book is certainly unusual. A secret facility houses militairy officers, all brave men, who have, for reasons unknown, become mentally disturbed. Housed without hope, a militairy psychiatrist enters their lives in a most unexpected way. Yet, it appears that he has his own issues with which to contend, issues that lie at the heart of his seeming understanding of their problems. Things are not always what they seem. Be prepare for a shocking surprise. This book is definitely a thriller in every sense of the word.

I read this book after reading The Exorcist and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Despite The Exorcist's beautiful language (though disturbing context) the Ninth Configuration is eloquently written and thought-provoking. The underlying messages of faith and spiritual satisfaction loom everywhere in this great novel. It is witty and suspenseful, and never dragging or boring. Based on the first publication, Twinkle,Twinkle Killer Kane, the Ninth Configuration is "short and sweet" and a definte keeper. I really enjoyed reading it and I'm sure any fan of Blatty's would too.

The experience of war has taken its toll on members of the military. They are offered a means of escape and therapy at a secret treatment center in the Pacific Northwest. All of these intelligent men have mental disorders that are inexplicable - are they real or are they faking in order to elude further combat? That is the question at the heart of "The Ninth Configuration" by William Peter Blatty, a short but overwhelmingly powerful book.

When the psychaitrist Hudson Kane arrives on the scene, the inmates, especially the leader Billy Cutshaw, immediately put him to the test. And through means of a radical new therapy, the men respond to Kane in promising ways and a cure seems within reach. Cutshaw is especially drawn to Kane, as both men search to prove that God exists in a world that constantly tries to destroy itself.

While short, "The Ninth Configuration" packs a powerful and profound punch. From the author of "The Exorcist", this novel also deals with spiritual principles that take center stage towards the novel's end. It will make readers laugh out loud, and sit back and contemplate the points the author raises.

This is based on a book from the early career of Mr. Blatty, which is titled TWINKLE TWINKLE KILLER KANE, that original being broader in comedy and, by the author's admission, pretty sketchy. THE NINTH CONFIGURATION, however, is tightly crafted, thought provoking and can evoke great laughter as well as suspense. If you could mix the zany sensibility of the Marx brothers with the incisive speculation of R.D. Laing, you might have some idea of this fair. A unique and lasting piece of entertainment.

This script by author-director William Peter Blatty won the 1981 Golden Globe Award and was completely ignored by Oscar. Who got it right? True, the Golden Globes have named their share of embarrassing winners over the years, but a careful reading of the screenplay, now available here in book form, reveals this was a deserving recipient.

The story goes like this: During the Vietnam War, a secret base is set up on the grounds of a gloomy castle to deal with some of the U.S. military's hardest headcases. When a man named Kane arrives to take charge of the institution, he brings with him a message of hope and a belief in man's innermost goodness that is sharply challenged both by those he must care for and, as he comes to realize, by the creature inside Kane himself.

There are three different versions of this story in book form. One, "Twinkle, Twinkle Killer Kane," came out in the mid-1960s and was more of a zany farce that established some central story elements. Then around the same time he put it on screen as "The Ninth Configuration," Blatty reworked the story and published a second novel with the same name as the film.

Then in 1999 came this, the text of the script Blatty brought to his shooting location in Budapest. Here can be found many changes and cuts that serial viewers of "Ninth Configuration" will not need pointed out. A running sidebar narrative offered by film critic and "Ninth Configuration" champion Mark Kermode points out several changes. Kermode also penned an introduction for this book.

You can't really top the effect of seeing "The Ninth Configuration" on screen, with its eerie music and lighting and its sensational, inspired cast. More even than being a great movie, it's a one-of-a-kind cinematic experience, immersive and uplifting. But if you have to pick one element of the movie to call the best, it would be the script, which manages to be at once hyperliterate, madcap, silly, reverent, terrified, and pulsating. Blatty takes on the stuff of life with a unique attitude akin to Lenny Bruce if Bruce taught Sunday school. Blatty knew how to produce terror and laughs on screen; he wrote both "The Exorcist" and "A Shot In The Dark." Here he brings both together in a way that can only be described as inspired.

Kermode finds a lot of things interesting that don't particularly interest me, and passes over other subjects I wish he had focused more on. But the book comes with some fresh beside-the-scenes photos as well as anecdotes taken from interviews with Blatty, some of which will be familiar to viewers of the DVD commentary and some which is new.

For example, Blatty apparently got Joe DiMaggio to agree to make a cameo appearance in the film before Blatty had a change of heart, one he regrets now. There was to have been an involved opening sequence set in Vietnam which was deep-sixed when Blatty couldn't find any Vietnamese in Budapest. An inmate's Groucho Marx-style walk is in part a nod by Blatty to Groucho, who gave Blatty his first serious break in show business.

Like any good script, "The Ninth Configuration" works better on screen than on paper, but this is a very nice if somewhat bare companion for us fans to have around, a way to keep such classic lines like "Why do camels have humps and cobras none?" and "Every kind thought is the hope of the world" close at hand.

While "The Exorcist" put Blatty on the map, it is the "Ninth Configuration" that established him as a "literary" writer. We are dealing with military misfits and instead of the deeply troubled priest, we have the deeply troubled psychologist. The story is not as action-filled as one may like but the way in which the various layers are laid bare is a wonder to behold.

One slowly grasps "the twist" made all the more poignant by those involved (no revelations from this reviewer). The ability of the mind to withstand the evil that men do has never been so tested, nor have the reactions to that evil been so effectively dramatized. There is a longing at the end, a sadness and yet a confirmation of all that is good. The rendering of the various personalities was a tour de force of imagination - they still resonate at time.

A team of misfits from military are collected for a special
project, study of what drove them into insanity. This story is
terrific look at human pysche, belief system, and will. This
is also the novel from which the movie with Stacey Keech, arrived. EXCELLENT action, plot, characters. Thought-provoking
and maybe even life-changing.

This is a well written and tightly crafted novel. The dialogue, while often full of angst, is witty and clever. The premise of the book is certainly unusual. A secret facility houses militairy officers, all brave men, who have, for reasons unknown, become mentally disturbed. Housed without hope, a militairy psychiatrist enters their lives in a most unexpected way. Yet, it appears that he has his own issues with which to contend, issues that lie at the heart of his seeming understanding of their problems. Things are not always what they seem. Be prepare for a shocking surprise. This book is definitely a thriller in every sense of the word.

For such a short read, William Blatty incorporated a number of plot twists in this fantastic book. By far, this is one of the best books I have read this year.

The fictional Center 18 houses a collection of military officers that have experienced breakdowns. The inmates are seemingly out of control until Colonel Hudson Kane arrives. While employing a new therapy, he explores the question of whether the inmates are faking their illness. In a twist, we see perhaps Hudson Kane is more in need of mental healthcare than any of the others. Without giving much more of the plot away, Cutshaw the leader of the inmates is cured. The cost of his healing raises some of the most intriguing and haunting questions of the book.

At times, the book can be laugh-out-loud funny. While simulataneously causing deep moral reflection, this book proves to be a gem.

The Ninth Configuration, actually based on an earlier Blatty novel, Twinkle, Twinkle Killer Kane which I never read is a very good book. It is one of the few cases where the movie (written and directed by Mr. Blatty) is actually better. The movie is out of this world. The book is short and is mostly dialogue-which is excellent and funny in nature. But because of that I think it translates better on film. I recommend both the book and the film. You will not be disappointed.