Descriptive or predictive?, 16 Oct 2006
A brilliant and captivating work. As a novel that received the accolade of "an astonishment" from the genius that is Dennis Cooper, immediately you know that you're in for an unforgettable journey. Having previously read 'Allan Stein' by the same author, I naturally had preconceptions about 'The Sex Offender' - all of which were trampled on. Matthew Stadler's incredible talent is evident from the fact that two novels entirely unrecognisable from one another in tone and style could emerge from the same pen (or keyboard), and yet be equally powerful.

'The Sex Offender' is difficult to categorise, but if you think 'A Clockwork Orange' and '1984', then you'd start out along the right lines. The primary thread of the story is that our protagonist, a former teacher, is undergoing "rehabilitation" for having an illicit (consensual) relationship with a 12 year old pupil. This 'treatment' initially takes the form of electric shock aversion-style therapy, which shifts it's focus as the teacher (inevitably) proves 'resistant' to the attempts to transform his nature.

However, the scope of this ambitious work is far wider than the issue of whether such treatment can merely 'neuter' rather than 'reform' the patient. The key is the setting of the novel: an unspecified (future?) time, when the State is infallible and omnipotent and the populace are controlled through an elaborate means of propaganda and heavy restrictions on individual liberty. While undergoing 'treatment', our teacher meets, and becomes infatuated with, an adolescent boy who works for a deluded group of rebels seeking to overthrow the State and seize power for their own leader. As a patient of the Doctor-General for the 'Department of Crime and Health' (note the correlation of these areas of society) the teacher becomes embroiled both with the promulgation of the existing State and with the rebels' goal of revolution.

These twin stories of 'sexual crime' and a controlling State serve as an exceptionally apt tool for an examination of the nature and powers of the State versus individual freedom. Matthew Stadler's novel is in many ways as descriptive of the State as it exists today, as it is predictive of the State as it will be in the future....hence the question: does the State ever really change, or does it merely re-vamp it's projected image periodically, in order to perpetrate such illusions as 'people power' and 'democracy'? Matthew Stadler's mastery of language and expert craftsmanship have produced a fascinating and insightful novel that is still haunting days after first being read - and one which will beg to be read again. Thought-provoking and unique, 'The Sex Offender' should not be missed.