Classic Book Review: Memoirs of an Invisible Man by H.F. Saint

When I offered four previous posts exploring three TV series called The Invisible Man over the past two months, I had no idea I’d stumble on to a 1987 novel, Memoirs of an Invisible Man, the only book ever written by H.F. Saint. I’d never heard of it but was delighted with my new discovery.

The book’s narrator is Nicholas Halloway, a 34 year old securities analyst who accompanies a love interest to an experimental lab called MicroMagnetics. There, a group of Marxist student demonstrators set off an explosion that results in the building and everything in it turning invisible, including Nick.

Immediately, Nick learns a government agency wants to take him into custody for medical experiments and possibly turn him into an intelligence agent. Preferring personal liberty, Nick escapes through the security perimeter around the now invisible laboratory and begins a yearlong run from the relentless Colonel David Jenkins and his team who turn over every stone to capture or kill Halloway. The cat-and-mouse manhunt began as Jenkins wanted to imprison a fugitive innocent of any crime, and what criminal acts that follow are only Halloway’s attempts to keep his freedom.

For much of the story, we hear Halloway’s account about his learning what invisibility means to him and how he first hides in New York private clubs and then unoccupied apartments as the Jenkins group comes closer and closer to capturing him. Ultimately, Halloway unexpectedly seduces artist Alice Barlow who thinks he’s a ghost lover. She hides him before unintentionally revealing Halloway is living with her. But once again, Halloway makes his escape even as he amasses a small fortune as an investor with a new identity.

In the beginning, the story is told with a light, wry tone with comic moments like a bungled seduction inside a railway car. Once Halloway turns invisible, the plot unfolds with suspenseful tension as Halloway, with both luck and cunning, evades the unending efforts of Jenkins and his subordinates. Saint gives Halloway many believable and sympathetic characteristics and provides page after page of details painting the settings and circumstances of Holloway’s lonely existence. We read very plausible descriptions of Holloway’s discoveries and just how he eludes the noose coming closer and closer to his neck.

I found the book impossible to put down. On the other hand, in 1992, John Carpenter’s lackluster film adaptation starred Chevy Chase, Daryl Hannah, and Sam Neill. Changing the locale to San Francisco and Mexico and emphasizing comic elements with numerous changes to the book’s plot, all reviews of the film have been universally negative. The less said about it, the better.

I don’t know if I’m disappointed or relieved Saint never wrote a sequel. Reportedly, the income from Memoirs was so good, Saint became something of a recluse and never wrote anything thereafter. I don’t know if the author ever thought about what might happen next. Considering all the resources invested in catching Halloway, the odds are more than good he would ultimately be caught and incarcerated. This would likely result in a depressing read with a very likeable character having lost everything with no positive future in the cards. Perhaps it’s best Nick Halloway is left alone with his final speculations, even if it means we’ll never know what the possibilities might be for Nick and Alice. As long as there’s a Col. Jenkins or someone like him, the Invisible Man must remain a fugitive on the run and we’ve read that story. If his chase ends, so too any hope or optimism for a man who was thrust into a life he never wanted who only wants to be left alone.