A Talk about Don McGregor's 1981 novel, The Variable Syndrome

The following conversation is excerpted from Don McGregor and Malcolm Deeley, in the Don McGregor E-mail Forum, 2008

Don, we were talking over on your MySpace page not long ago about "The Variable Syndrome", and specifically Elena, the character at the heart of that story. I took out my old and much-thumbed copy from 1981, and read through the story again. It left deep impressions, just as it did the first time I read it 27 years ago. For those of your fans and readers here, I thought I might share those impressions (for those who've never read the book, hunt it down on Amazon or e-bay! It is one of those special treasures that come along all too infrequently -- it also includes the fascinating, touching, disturbing and uplifting "Investigating Detectives Inc.").

I was just beginning my own career as a poet in '81, and working hard to try and come to understandings about the emotions, obsessions, drives and desires of men and women. One thing I had almost never seen done with a feeling of veracity, with an immediacy and intimacy, was a literary depiction of a woman's sensuality, from a woman's viewpoint, and written by a man. This, naturally, led me to the youthful conclusion that it couldn't be done. The needs and desires of men and women were impossible for the opposite gender to grasp, except through the warped mirror of their own gender perceptions. Then I read "The Variable Syndrome". In it are some of the most intimate, passionate and powerful depictions of sexual love I have read. Elena, from whose viewpoint they are presented, is hard-edged, distanced from her husband by breakdowns in communication; she is hungry for touch, both physical and spiritual, but has raised powerful emotional walls between herself and intimacy with her partner (which his own behavior has significantly contributed to). What the story presents is a nuanced awakening of intense sexuality, told without an instant of cliche. At age 23, I could not fully understand all of those nuances (how such a distancing between lovers can happen, and how incredibly difficult it can be to find the way back to one another. At 50, I can look back and see just how precisely you hit that nail on the head, Don).

The upshot of reading "The Variable Syndrome" was an awareness that men COULD understand the depth and complexity of a woman's sensual life, and that became something I could strive for, both in writing, and more significantly, in living. Reading the book again this weekend, I felt that affirmation just as strongly as I did in '81.

It is just another one of the gifts your writing has given to your readers, Don, and I wanted you to know about it. I hope that I haven't gone on too long here in this forum, but it seemed an appropriate place to share that sense of appreciation with you, your friends, and your readers here in this circle.

Elena walked out into a field of serpents in the end, ready to accept the judgment of the night. I've walked into that very same field, with mind and body both. Thanks for illuminating the pathway a bit.

best regards,
Malcolm

Malcolm,
Well, if anything will get me to re-read "The Variable Syndrome", it will be,in the words of Jim Salicrup, your eloquently emotionally charged response to the book after all these years.

Unlike Jim, I'll probably have a little fear about re-reading the book.

Most of the time, unless I am going back to write a character, I seldom read the books after their initial printing. I read them then, sometimes more than once, to get used to the reality of what they are, and my impressions of them. I’m a little reluctant to tamper with time, and let the impression remain unviolated. Originally, "The Variable Syndrome" was scheduled to be one of the stories in "Dragonflame and Other Bedtime Nightmares."

It was written while I still lived in the state of Rhode Island. The story was 31 pages long. Why can I recall that, and not why I walked into a room today and what I needed there? I have no answer for that.

I became concerned about the "Dragonflame" book because it had two stories that dealt with relationships, all from a male point of view. I had done little rewriting on the stories included in that anthology. Quite possibly I had juggled some of the flashbacks in the "Bernie Chojnacki" piece because that came from a larger novel, and the Bernie section was merely one chapter. But for the most part, if memory serves, there weren't any major rewrites in the stories, that had been written during different time periods of my life. I
decided that I needed a story in that collection that WOULD be from a woman's point of view, not a man's, and I started out to rewrite "The Variable Syndrome" after everything else was done in "Dragonflame."

I changed the point of view to Elena's.

I did not add a single scene to that story.

But when 31 pages began to run over a hundred pages in text, Dave Kraft wisely said, in words more or less like this:"I recognize a novel when I see it, and this needs to be a book by itself."

I don't exactly recall where I was living when I wrote this new version of THE VARIABLE SYNDROME, but I'm pretty sure it must have been on the Bowery. I recall fondly to this day working with Dave Kraft in the Green Kitchen restaurant in the upper 70s . East Side Manhattan in the early morn hours, from 2 am to 5 am or later. We would go over the transcripts, with Dave's notes and suggestions. Sometimes there would be a change Dave would want, and I would shake my head. No, that was the way I wanted it.

And Dave would shrug, and say, "Okay, it's your book. If you want it to be wrong."

Ten minutes later, I'd probably tell him to pull that page back out and explain to me again, "So, give me that again, what makes this wrong?"

I am moved that the story affected you in writing, and in your own life.

That's what telling stories is about, in many ways.

Don

Thank you Don, for the insights and memories about the writing of "The Variable Syndrome". Only you, I think, would be conscientious enough to harbor the thought that a book (in this case the original "Dragonflame" ) would feel out of balance by having stories about relationships written purely from a male point of view. Some male writers (most?) go whole careers full of books without even considering attempting to see a story or a concept, in depth, from a woman's point of view. But that is the kind of caring that still makes these stories vital and alive 25, 30 years later, and I am sure will make them timelessly so.

One other aspect of the story that I think blew right over my head the first time I read the book, was how deftly you balanced the science fiction elements of the story with the deep exploration of a character (Elena) and a relationship. The concept that relationships carry within them their own "variable syndromes" -- elements of change and growth that make it impossible to move backward (symbolized beautifully by the inability of their time traveling device to do just that) -- is fascinating, and very true indeed.

Take the best care always,
Malcolm