To the extent that The Ninth Configuration has a driving plot, it is a mystery: clues build up that the new psychiatrist, Hudson Kane, may not be who or what he says he is. Some of the evidence is intriguingly unreliable, since it is being assembled by mental patients, or by staff such as Dr. Fell or Sergeant Groper, who sometimes seem as crazy as their charges.

Brief memories and longer dreams by Kane provide other hints, more likely true but more baffling. Fell disappears without explanations, heightening the dramatic questions. This mystery aspect is structured simply and melodramatically, with most (although not all) clues at the ends of chapters. Towards the end of the book, a new inmate recognizes Kane as someone else, and Kane's old identity unravels.

Above all, however, The Ninth Configuration is a remarkably funny book, worth reading for the dialogue and absurd actions...