n this sequel to Madness, volume 2 in the Fate trilogy, Jack Smith toys with appearance versus reality. If Meister sees himself as the double of Nietzsche, he sees many doubles of others, especially women. And especially in Basel, Switzerland, where he’d studied under Nietzsche years earlier and where he takes refuge during World War I. At Basel, in the cafes and bars along the Rhine, what’s real and not real are both real to him. It’s all surreal. 

   The novel begins in 1900 and ends in 1945. It is mostly set in Germany, but also in Amsterdam, where Anna, a Jew, seeks refuge after Hitler comes to power. If Meister is driven by his need for possible greatness with his hoped-for publication of his book, he is also driven by the need for romance in his shaky marriage to Anna and in his own lustful pursuit of young women. The novel ends in the mayhem of Anna’s abduction by SS thugs and, later, of Germany’s defeat.