Message-ID: <691@topaz.ARPA>
Date: Mon, 18-Feb-85 23:24:25 EST
Article-I.D.: topaz.691
Posted: Mon Feb 18 23:24:25 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 21-Feb-85 05:03:38 EST
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Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
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From: fusci%netman.DEC@decwrl.ARPA  (Ray Fusci)

>From: ukma!red@topaz (Red Varth)
>Subject: Here's another book that needs identification:
>Date: 12 Feb 85 21:14:00 GMT
> 
>This book starts out about a professor whose wife has left him. He
>gets depressed one night, and tries to commit suicide. He's saved by
>his hat.  His wife is a nurse, I think.
> 
>...
> 
>At this point, the story shift to another person. This guy
>officially doesn't exist -- he doesn't have the equivalent of a SS
>number. He's a burglar by profession (and a good one, too). Then he
>breaks into this apartment, and discovers that the tenant (a woman
>about 24-26) is trying to commit suicide.
>...

and
 
>From: ut-ngp!lindley@topaz (John L. Templer)
>Subject: Re: Here's another book that needs identification:
>Date: 13 Feb 85 23:43:47 GMT
> 
>I don't know how much this helps, but the part about the burglar and
>the woman sounds very much like a story that appeared in _OMNI_ a
>few years back.  I know, it's a pretty thin lead, but you might be
>able to check at a library, or maybe a subscriber to _OMNI_ could
>help you.  (I let my subscription lapse, too many dumb articles on
>pseudo-science.)
> 
>> . . . . . Then he breaks into this apartment, and discovers that
>> the tenant (a woman about 24-26) is trying to commit suicide.
>>
>> The woman had plugged herself into the wire, and was starving
>> herself to death. The guy unplugs her, and saves her life (she
>> breaks his nose in the process).

The requested book is _MINDKILLER_, by Spider Robinson, Berkley Books,
ISBN 0-425-06288-0.  I've read the second chapter (more or less),
somewhere else by itself.  The book credits _OMNI_ with an excerpt
titled "God Is an Iron", which I assume is also the second chapter
(I don't read _OMNI_).  Robinson does indeed credit Niven re: wire-
heading.

Ray Fusci

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