Experiments

Prisoners-of-war don't have many choices. They're locked up, eat and drink what they're told, and go to the bathroom how they're allowed. They can't go to the grocery store, or a restaurant, and for sure not to a bar. And, of course no sex. They're not even allowed to see a woman, maybe in the far, far, distance. I've never been a prisoner-of-war, so I don't know, exactly, what happens, but I can imagine, and I'm pretty sure a prisoner-of-war camp is not a very pretty place. This...
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Prisoners-of-war don't have many choices. They're locked up, eat and drink what they're told, and go to the bathroom how they're allowed. They can't go to the grocery store, or a restaurant, and for sure not to a bar. And, of course no sex. They're not even allowed to see a woman, maybe in the far, far, distance. I've never been a prisoner-of-war, so I don't know, exactly, what happens, but I can imagine, and I'm pretty sure a prisoner-of-war camp is not a very pretty place. This novel, Experiments, is not about a prisoner-of-war camp. But there are some similarities. Nutrition research volunteers are absolutely locked up. They can go to movies, the mall, bookstores, pretty much whatever, but their every move is chaperoned. No candy, pop, cigarettes, alcohol, not even a public water fountain, no anything that people living a normal life can have anytime they want. Life at MEAL, the Metabolism & Excretion Analysis Laboratory, is not a normal place. Men living there are told what to eat, when to eat, how much to eat, and definitely how to go to the bathroom. At the end of their meals they're required to clean their dishes, literally, to lick them clean, so that they get every drop of nutrition that was measured out for each individual. There's lots of free time, but tests like electrocardiograms, electroencephalograms, underwater weighing, controlled exercise, etc., go on all week. So, it's not really like a prisoner-of-war camp, and nobody gets tortured or brutalized. And even though they signed their name and get paid for living under these conditions for up to six months at a time, they still have the option of stopping, of quitting. And that's the clincher, what makes living at MEAL way similar to, but also way different from, a prisoner-of-war camp: Any time they can't take it a moment longer, they can leave. The real test is emotional: Frustrations build, tempers flare, love affairs, friendships, hatreds, develop.