A Cure for Cancer

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A Cure for Cancer
Dust-jacket from the first edition
Author	Michael Moorcock
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Series	Jerry Cornelius
Genre(s)	Science fiction novel
Publisher	Allison & Busby
Publication date	1971
Media type	Print (Hardback)
Pages	256 pp
ISBN	ISBN 0-85031-026-1
Preceded by	The Final Programme
Followed by	The English Assassin

A Cure for Cancer is a novel by British fantasy and science fiction writer Michael Moorcock [1]. It is part of his long running Jerry Cornelius series [2].

The second novel of the sequence, [3], is essentially a collage of absurdist vignettes, many of which first appeared in an eclectic range British and American magazines.

The lurid blurb of the original edition [4] sets the scene in graphic terms "Up from the ocean depths comes the jet-black caucasian transvestite champion. Resplendant in warpaint, wampum beads and silk suit by Cardin, armed only with a tomahawk and vibragun, he returns to the napalmed ruins of London to resurrect his sister and wrest from the disgusting Bishop Beesley and his formidable henchwomen the black box which has diffracted the cosmos and set the world spinning at super-speed towards its own final solution. Lock up your daughters, hide your stash, keep to the shadows."

Jerry inhabits a world at war with itself and, armed only with an occasional 'vibragun' appears to fight 'against history' for the freedom of 'randomness' against the straitlaced conventions exemplified by his brother Frank. In the end Jerry's quest, oblique as it is, is perhaps more artistic than political.

"Jerry didn't mind the bombs as much as the rock scene. He wouldn't care what they sent so long as it wasn't Simon and Garfunkel."