What Rough Beast

Book excerpt: In 1962 Robin is forced by the Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire to undergo psychiatric treatment in order to be cured of his homosexuality. Instead of turning him into a heterosexual, his psychiatrist turns him into a schizophrenic. He has a beatific vision and gives a written account of it to the German theologian Paul Tillich, who then proclaims in Harvard's Memorial Church: The Son of Man is in our presence. Robin thereupon goes in search of the Second Coming and discovers Mark Frechette, who will later have the star role in Michelangelo Antonioni's film Zabriskie Point. Mark is later crucified in prison at the age of twenty-seven.