The insidious disease which poisoned Francis Vollmer’s life was insanity – the insanity of snobbism. A respected American banker, his upright life in New York was a shadow of reality compared to the glorious destiny that awaited him when his unknown parents revealed their identity. Convinced that, if not actual royalty, they must be members of the British peerage, he prepared for the moment when he would join that noble society. With invincible logic, he learnt a heritage from reference books and qualified teachers such as M. Grondet, the gout-ridden gourmet, and his niece, Denise, a modern courtesan.

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His life in America becomes a dream, forgotten when he assumes a new identity, and fantasy becomes reality as he sports among the real aristocracy of Paris, London and Geneva. His delusion is pathetic, menacing and violent; yet often brilliantly funny.

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Any God Will Do is not only a vivid study of specialized insanity, but a macabre indictment of self-delusion and snobbery, their false values and sinister power. 

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Here is Condon at his most outrageous, irreverent and overwhelming; as should be rightfully expected of the author of The Manchurian Candidate and An Infinity of Mirrors…

 

Whatever your expectations, Condon surpasses them. His novels are architectural extravaganzas, pavilions and follies, which stand out on the landscape of contemporary fiction.