text: This book contains the childhood memoirs of Peter Reich.  As the son of psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich, Peter led a bizarre life.  He lived with his parents on the family estate of Orgonon in the backwoods of Maine.  Not only did his father develop a unique form of psychotherapy, but he also was a theorist who experimented with unknown forms of energy.  As Wilhelm's only child, Peter was one of the first recipients of Reich's therapy methods, which involved special forms of touch, energy channeling, "softening the stomach", and inducing vomiting (in Peter's account). Peter was also made lieutenant in his father's defensive squad that protected the earth from UFO attacks through the use of "accumulator guns".  The elder Reich eventually got in trouble with the FDA for manufacturing and promoting medical equipment without proper testing for safety and effectiveness.  The court case involving his work eventually landed him in jail through contempt of court.  Not long after being sent to prison, he passed away, apparently of heart failure.  Upon his father's death, Peter found himself at the tender age of 13 forced to confront his father's legacy of brilliance and madness.  Up until the time of his father's death, he had believed everything his father told him, not knowing enough of contemporary scientific theories to understand how different his father's version of reality was from most other people's, nor having established an identity of his own through which he could objectively choose between his father's explanations and standard scientific approaches.  In this book, Peter tries to sort out for himself what is real and what is not, what is his, and what is his father's.
  
  The book reads like the proverbial onion-chapters move in a dreamlike fashion from one period of time to another.  Sometimes it's hard to tell if what Peter is describing actually took place, or whether it was all an imaginative game in his head.  By the end of the book, the reader will have some inkling of the confusion in Peter's mind, but, like Peter, may not be capable of saying what really happened.  In any case, this is very much a book about Peter Reich, and not Wilhelm Reich, although readers who want to learn more about Wilhelm Reich may find some clues to his ideas through the interpretation of his son, who experienced them first hand and without question
  