Seconds by David Ely

One of my favorite macabre thrillers, this is a dark and startling look at dissatisfaction with the American Dream and its promise of success that will chill you to the bone.

A Wall Street banker leaves his office of twenty-six years, never to return, for an address written on a piece of paper. His friend Charlie just gave it to him over the phone, although Charlie died last year. Given information only Charley could know, he was offered a chance to begin life again. He has grown apart from his wife, his daughter is now married, and his career is going no higher. What were his dreams as a young man, and why is he so unsatisfied? Blind detours lead him to the offices of the company which, with clockwork efficiency, takes care of it all (they manage fifteen clients a day), processing him like any other product. With paperwork signing over all assets in exchange for settlements for his family and future financial security, he is weighed and measured so a matching cadaver from storage can be left at the scene of his 'death,' and he walks away from it all. He always wanted to be a painter, and now, as Tony Wilson, he has a ranch house on the California coast, a new face, a new identity, a new life. A man is assigned to help ease his transition, and a party is planned to meet the neighbors, which he is saddened to discover is all social surface. Will he ever really know anyone again? Is everyone playing a masquerade?

The urge to return and see the impact he made in the world (if any) is too strong, even after warnings from Charley, whose existence depends on Wilson's success. There is a deep vein of dissatisfaction and identity running through his story that a new life will not fix. After doing everything he has been told to, what was it for? And who can he be now except a fraud? The darkness sets in when you see the company itself is broken with too much workload and a high failure rate, a system unable to succeed but impossible to shut down. I've read it many times and still feel the cold daggers slide down my spine when I reach the electrifying ending.

Seconds was filmed in 1966 by John Frankenheimer, starring Rock Hudson, and has become a cult classic. Nominated for the Cannes Palme d'Or, it has been inducted into the US Library of Congress National Film Registry as culturally significant.

1964 / Paperback / 160 pages