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Dr. Patrick Cory #2
Hauser's Memory
Mr. Stodmak combines his medical knowledge with an amazing amount of prognostic speculation. In this one he's dealing with that new, as yet indefinable, substance that is stepbrother to DNA--RNA which could be a path to the disposition of retained memory. This story would give Jung's collective consciousness the shakes because it's about what happens when Hauser's Memory is transmitted to Hillel's brain. Hauser was a German scientist defecting from East Germany and Hillel is an American scientist and a kosher Jew. Despite the overly melodramatic framework, it is a taut suspense story with some very interesting projections.--Kirkus
- GenresScience FictionHorror
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1968
3 people are currently reading
159 people want to read
About the author
Curt Siodmak
62 books21 followersCurt Siodmak (1902–2000) was a novelist and screenwriter, author of the novel Donovan's Brain, which was made into a number of films. He also wrote the novels Hauser's Memory and Gabriel's Body.
Born Kurt Siodmak in Dresden, Germany, Curt Siodmak acquired a degree in mathematics before beginning to write novels. He invested early royalties earned by his first books in the movie Menschen am Sonntag (1929), a documentary-style chronicle of the lives of four Berliners on a Sunday based on their own lives. The movie was co-directed by Curt Siodmak's older brother Robert Siodmak and Edgar G. Ulmer, with a script by Billy Wilder.
In the following years Curt Siodmak wrote many novels, screenplays and short stories including the novel F.P.1 Antwortet Nicht (F.P.1 Doesn't Answer) (1933) which became a popular movie starring Hans Albers and Peter Lorre.
Siodmak decided to emigrate after hearing an anti-semitic tirade by the Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, and departed for England where he made a living as a screenwriter before travelling to the USA in 1937.
His big break came with the screenplay for The Wolf Man (1941) which established this fictional creature as the most popular movie monster after Dracula and Frankenstein's monster.
In The Wolf Man Siodmak made reference to many werewolf legends: being marked by a pentagram; being practically immortal apart from being struck/shot by silver implements/bullets; and the famous verse:
"Even a man who is pure in heart, And says his prayers by night May become a Wolf when the Wolfbane blooms And the autumn Moon is bright" (the last line was changed in the sequels to The Moon is full and bright).
Siodmak's science-fiction novel Donovan's Brain (1942) was a bestseller and was adapted for the cinema several times. Other notable films he wrote include Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, I Walked With a Zombie and The Beast With Five Fingers.
Born Kurt Siodmak in Dresden, Germany, Curt Siodmak acquired a degree in mathematics before beginning to write novels. He invested early royalties earned by his first books in the movie Menschen am Sonntag (1929), a documentary-style chronicle of the lives of four Berliners on a Sunday based on their own lives. The movie was co-directed by Curt Siodmak's older brother Robert Siodmak and Edgar G. Ulmer, with a script by Billy Wilder.
In the following years Curt Siodmak wrote many novels, screenplays and short stories including the novel F.P.1 Antwortet Nicht (F.P.1 Doesn't Answer) (1933) which became a popular movie starring Hans Albers and Peter Lorre.
Siodmak decided to emigrate after hearing an anti-semitic tirade by the Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, and departed for England where he made a living as a screenwriter before travelling to the USA in 1937.
His big break came with the screenplay for The Wolf Man (1941) which established this fictional creature as the most popular movie monster after Dracula and Frankenstein's monster.
In The Wolf Man Siodmak made reference to many werewolf legends: being marked by a pentagram; being practically immortal apart from being struck/shot by silver implements/bullets; and the famous verse:
"Even a man who is pure in heart, And says his prayers by night May become a Wolf when the Wolfbane blooms And the autumn Moon is bright" (the last line was changed in the sequels to The Moon is full and bright).
Siodmak's science-fiction novel Donovan's Brain (1942) was a bestseller and was adapted for the cinema several times. Other notable films he wrote include Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, I Walked With a Zombie and The Beast With Five Fingers.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
August 9, 2023
While this is billed at the second Dr. Cory novel (following Donovan's Brain, it is not the same Dr. Cory but a similar persona-- a dedicated scientist pursuing his experiments. In this case, it is not a 'brain in a jar' deal, but the transfer of memory via RNA from one organism to another. Dr. Cory is a leader in the field for sure, already having amassed a Nobel prize. One day a Mr. Slaughter shows up at his office with an offer.
It seems a certain Hauser, a former Nazi scientist who was 'acquired' by Russia after WWII chose to defect to the West, but unfortunately was shot at the border and now is near death. Slaughter makes Dr. Cory a proposition-- can he use his RNA memory technique on a human subject? Dr. Cory has experimented with animals, but not humans. Hauser apparently has some deep secrets that Slaughter's boss really wants (CIA? some mysterious alphabet agency in D.C. at least). Slaughter has even brought a volunteer; an inmate doing life at Sing Sing. Time is of the essence as Hauser will soon die, making his cranial RNA worthless. Even though the 'volunteer' backs out, Dr. Cory and his assistant Hillel go ahead and 'process' Hauser's brain and go through the complicated procedure to isolate the 'memory' part of the RNA. When Dr. Cory proposes to use himself as a guinea pig, Hillel, aghast at the potential loss of such a brilliant person, injects himself with Hauser's RNA...
Interesting premise and Siodmak can tell a story. First published in 1968, Hauser's Memory is full of cold war intrigue as Hillel suddenly takes a flight to Denmark and then West Berlin. I did not expect such a cloak and dagger story here, but so be it! As usual, some interesting speculation on consciousness and what makes us human. Are we just a 'sack of chemicals' obeying their reactions or is there something else? Would it be possible to isolate memories via RNA and pass them on, achieving a sort of immortality? Some good stuff to chew on to say the least. I would have liked more on this, but the cloak and dagger escapades dominated the book. 3 stars!!
It seems a certain Hauser, a former Nazi scientist who was 'acquired' by Russia after WWII chose to defect to the West, but unfortunately was shot at the border and now is near death. Slaughter makes Dr. Cory a proposition-- can he use his RNA memory technique on a human subject? Dr. Cory has experimented with animals, but not humans. Hauser apparently has some deep secrets that Slaughter's boss really wants (CIA? some mysterious alphabet agency in D.C. at least). Slaughter has even brought a volunteer; an inmate doing life at Sing Sing. Time is of the essence as Hauser will soon die, making his cranial RNA worthless. Even though the 'volunteer' backs out, Dr. Cory and his assistant Hillel go ahead and 'process' Hauser's brain and go through the complicated procedure to isolate the 'memory' part of the RNA. When Dr. Cory proposes to use himself as a guinea pig, Hillel, aghast at the potential loss of such a brilliant person, injects himself with Hauser's RNA...
Interesting premise and Siodmak can tell a story. First published in 1968, Hauser's Memory is full of cold war intrigue as Hillel suddenly takes a flight to Denmark and then West Berlin. I did not expect such a cloak and dagger story here, but so be it! As usual, some interesting speculation on consciousness and what makes us human. Are we just a 'sack of chemicals' obeying their reactions or is there something else? Would it be possible to isolate memories via RNA and pass them on, achieving a sort of immortality? Some good stuff to chew on to say the least. I would have liked more on this, but the cloak and dagger escapades dominated the book. 3 stars!!
September 16, 2016
Just what I wanted to read, for the most part, to distract me from the seriousness of all of the other books I'm currently reading. I was pretty impressed with the quality of writing in Donovan's Brain, Siodmak's more famous novel (and a personal favorite 50's sci fi film), and liked this follow-up novel more in some ways and less in others. The chemical explanation of memory/personality transfer is considerably more believable here, and the personalities of the scientists were more fleshed out it seems, at least in the first half of the novel, and I really enjoyed their interplay--though it's been some years, admittedly, since I read Donovan's Brain there are fewer characters there and they're less fleshed-out as I recall.
At first I thought that the international Cold War intrigue part of the plot was interesting and added something to the sci fi elements, but that part of the plot dragged a bit at the end and I never quite got the novel's political point--perhaps there isn't one--as it was by turns both critical and sympathetic to both capitalist and communist regimes by turns--gratuitously so at times. That is to say, there are scenes that act as digressions in which characters present their political views on both sides of the Iron Curtain. But these struck me as about as "Fair and Balanced" as Fox news. I mean, that could be the point, that the novel doesn't harp on the standard good guy/bad guy stuff of most Cold War espionage writing--as if I knew, I never read that shit, except a Bond novel here and there. Still, freedom and USA and all that for the most part.
Beyond the characters' experiences of Eastern and Western government oppression, I did enjoy the descriptions of Cold War Europe and its WWII legacy. Since I've lived abroad for 20 years now it's interesting to be reminded that Post-World War II Europe was conditioned so much by the war itself--since I grew up post WWII, I entered the Post-War world ex nihilo, as if that's the way things (in Europe specifically) had always been. The espionage section here, however, took a bit too long and the chase scenes through East Germany just don't work as well in a book as they would have on TV or in a movie. And the ending, well, it had to end somehow...
At first I thought that the international Cold War intrigue part of the plot was interesting and added something to the sci fi elements, but that part of the plot dragged a bit at the end and I never quite got the novel's political point--perhaps there isn't one--as it was by turns both critical and sympathetic to both capitalist and communist regimes by turns--gratuitously so at times. That is to say, there are scenes that act as digressions in which characters present their political views on both sides of the Iron Curtain. But these struck me as about as "Fair and Balanced" as Fox news. I mean, that could be the point, that the novel doesn't harp on the standard good guy/bad guy stuff of most Cold War espionage writing--as if I knew, I never read that shit, except a Bond novel here and there. Still, freedom and USA and all that for the most part.
Beyond the characters' experiences of Eastern and Western government oppression, I did enjoy the descriptions of Cold War Europe and its WWII legacy. Since I've lived abroad for 20 years now it's interesting to be reminded that Post-World War II Europe was conditioned so much by the war itself--since I grew up post WWII, I entered the Post-War world ex nihilo, as if that's the way things (in Europe specifically) had always been. The espionage section here, however, took a bit too long and the chase scenes through East Germany just don't work as well in a book as they would have on TV or in a movie. And the ending, well, it had to end somehow...
July 5, 2020
An authority on RNA (ribonucleic aid) the brain substance in which memory is stored -- is approached by the CIA and asked to conduct a weird and dangerous experiment: to remove the RNA from Hauser, a dying German scientist who has defected from the Russians, and inject it into another man in the hope of releasing the German's secrets. But it is not only Hauser's memory that is transferred. With it go his obsessions, his dreams, his emotions, his character...gradually, insidiously. And there begins the bitter struggle as Hauser's memory tries to posses its new mind -- the mind of a man who is acutely aware of what is happening to him. A Science Fiction Book Club selection.
December 5, 2023
While I liked the concept it was just unreasonably slow and didnt delve into the topics I was hoping it would. I was hoping for it to go more into the schism of the two memories and lives but one life basically entirely usurps the other
February 25, 2012
This is a science fiction novel written by the brother of the film diector Robert Siodmak. Curt is primariy remembered for his screenplays.
December 29, 2018
Ein 50 Jahre altes, sehr eigentümliches Buch vom Exildeutschen Curt Siodmak (Bruder des Filmregisseurs Robert S., zusammen waren sie u.a. an "Menschen am Sonntag" beteiligt), der vor allem durch "Donovan's Brain" bekannt wurde. Der atmosphärisch dichte, aber eher handlungsarme Roman ist eine Kreuzung aus einer Jekyll-Hyde-Variante (Wissenschaftler vereinnahmt das Gedächtnis eines tödlich verletzten Opfers von kalter und Welt-Krieg-Intrigen) und einer zeitgenössischen, aber klischierten Beschreibung von Ostblock-Gepflogenheiten zwischen Berlin und Prag. Durchaus mit Elementen eines Agententhrillers (Siodmak ließ sich in den USA zum Geheimagenten ausbilden), aber dabei mehr daran interessiert US-amerikanischen Lesern die DDR zu erklären als eine spannende Story zu erzählen.
Interessant ist dabei auch, dass die beiden Hauptfiguren, zwei Wissenschaftler, wie typische Hitchcock-Unschuldige in komplexe Vorgänge hereingezogen werden, dabei aber nicht zu heldenhaften Jason Bournes mit Kampftraining mutieren, sondern oft wie Blätter im Wind agieren, während die Vertreter der unterschiedlichen Geheimdienste sie (meist aus eigener Zielsetzung) zu "retten" versuchen.
Hat mich nicht weggerockt, aber war in seiner bizarren, sehr vergangenheitsbezogenen Weise sehr ansprechend, weil dt. Geschichte halt zu meinem Leben gehört und ich Jekyll & Hyde sehr mag. Abgesehen von einigen eher läppisch klingenden biochemischen Vorgängen, die zum "Gedächtnis-Dilemma" führen (Hauser übernimmt teilweise den fremden Körper, um sich u.a. für eine Verstümmelung im 2. WK zu rächen), beherbergt das Buch nahezu keine SF-Elemente, schildert aber detailliert Berlin und eine Liebesgeschichte, die darunter leidet, dass der Geist eines stolzen Deutschen im Körper eines Jahrzehnte jüngeren New Yorker Juden landet.
Gerade mit dem zeitlichen Abstand zur Entstehungszeit, wenn man James Bond und die DDR hinter sich gelassen hat, wirkt der Roman inzwischen fast wie aus einer Parallelwelt.
Ich lese bevorzugt im Original, aber die Übersetzung von Yoma Cap muss ich besonders loben, vor allem das akzentverzerrte Deutsch eines tschechischen Piloten hat mich verzückt ("Wir sind drieben", "Flughehe") unwahrscheinlich, dass das im Original so authentisch geklungen hat (weil die Dialoge da vermutlich auf Englisch stattfanden).
Interessant ist dabei auch, dass die beiden Hauptfiguren, zwei Wissenschaftler, wie typische Hitchcock-Unschuldige in komplexe Vorgänge hereingezogen werden, dabei aber nicht zu heldenhaften Jason Bournes mit Kampftraining mutieren, sondern oft wie Blätter im Wind agieren, während die Vertreter der unterschiedlichen Geheimdienste sie (meist aus eigener Zielsetzung) zu "retten" versuchen.
Hat mich nicht weggerockt, aber war in seiner bizarren, sehr vergangenheitsbezogenen Weise sehr ansprechend, weil dt. Geschichte halt zu meinem Leben gehört und ich Jekyll & Hyde sehr mag. Abgesehen von einigen eher läppisch klingenden biochemischen Vorgängen, die zum "Gedächtnis-Dilemma" führen (Hauser übernimmt teilweise den fremden Körper, um sich u.a. für eine Verstümmelung im 2. WK zu rächen), beherbergt das Buch nahezu keine SF-Elemente, schildert aber detailliert Berlin und eine Liebesgeschichte, die darunter leidet, dass der Geist eines stolzen Deutschen im Körper eines Jahrzehnte jüngeren New Yorker Juden landet.
Gerade mit dem zeitlichen Abstand zur Entstehungszeit, wenn man James Bond und die DDR hinter sich gelassen hat, wirkt der Roman inzwischen fast wie aus einer Parallelwelt.
Ich lese bevorzugt im Original, aber die Übersetzung von Yoma Cap muss ich besonders loben, vor allem das akzentverzerrte Deutsch eines tschechischen Piloten hat mich verzückt ("Wir sind drieben", "Flughehe") unwahrscheinlich, dass das im Original so authentisch geklungen hat (weil die Dialoge da vermutlich auf Englisch stattfanden).
March 11, 2022
Sure its science is dated, but as a book, its only real flaw is also a product of its time, it's a bit short.
Sci Fi and the fantastic were expected to be quick and short. But the story is fun and engaging enough, and the writing isn't as dated as the format.
Sci Fi and the fantastic were expected to be quick and short. But the story is fun and engaging enough, and the writing isn't as dated as the format.
April 7, 2025
Not what I expected after Donovan's Brain and being from the same series.
It lacks the mad scientist personality from the first book.
It also felt very heavy at some points in spite of being so short.
It lacks the mad scientist personality from the first book.
It also felt very heavy at some points in spite of being so short.
December 30, 2017
Interesting, if a little long and not as horrific as I was told it would be. Still, not a bad thriller.
February 16, 2020
You would never think that the man who wrote the original screenplay for The Wolfman and this were the same, but they are.
October 13, 2021
Siodmak's an entertaining writer. There's nothing approaching art here but that is not always necessary.
January 31, 2018
Pretty satisfying little pulp book. It was an easy and quick read, well written and entertaining. It could have explored the core idea further but it was exciting to read all the way to the end.
August 2, 2009
Pretty good. I think it's interesting that in Total Recall the name of the Arnold character as a bad guy is Hauser. I wondered if it was a nod to this book.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews