THE LIGHTNING CAGE

This tale of a scholar's struggle with an elusive subject is high on content and intelligence but middling on fulfillment. The narrative jumps between two different stories that ultimately interlock in a poignant, if muted, fashion. When graduate student Christopher Bayliss grows disenchanted with scholarly work on the life of obscure 18th-century English poet Richard Pelham, he decides to study for the priesthood. When his commitment fizzles, he goes to work for a small printing company, but gets fired after one of the employees he's supposed to be supervising embezzles money. An auto accident leaves him with painful whiplash and spare time, and he plunges back into research on Pelham. An alcoholic but often inspired poet who had been treated with laudanum under a doctor's care, Pelham went to live with Lord Chilford, a noted scientist, at his estate. Lord Chilford's treatments failed, however; Pelham found Chilford's wine cellar, and he once again became mad—but also the host of celestial spirits that appeared to spur his creativity. Pelham's decline and Bayliss's decline subtly run parallel as the novel progresses. Wall (The School of Night) tells the labyrinthine story with unusual ease, and it's easy to forget that we are assimilating many different layers: psychological case study, historical record, biographical mystery, occult tale. The narrative goes slack occasionally, when description takes over without advancing the story. Wall also doesn't make enough drama from Pelham's eerie predicament or the barbarism of the 18th century's treatment of mental illness. But the novel is a moving, complex portrait of dissipated lives and disturbed minds, strangely similar though two centuries apart. (Mar.)