Omigosh, what a strange book! This is Dyer’s account of his attempts to write a book on D.H. Lawrence, a
task that he begins by reading poetry by Rilke, and continues by visiting sites where Lawrence has lived and worked. It really moves right along, except for one section in the middle where Dyer was actually doing some
analysis of Lawrence – that part is kind of boring.
The rest of the book is an accounting of what happens to Dyer while he is avoiding his chosen task. I don’t know that I have ever encountered a more contrarian person. Whatever it is that Dyer decides he wants to do, immediately the arguments against it start up in his mind, and he scarcely can accomplish anything due to this internal dialogue. Ergo, he starts an analysis of Lawrence by reading Rilke – he orders himself to read Lawrence, and therefore, he cannot bring himself to do it.
Having struggled with issues like that myself, I am sympathetic, but his problem seems really extreme. He describes problems with depression, lots of anger and possibly temper tantrums, and his
obsessive thinking is pervasive. Even his style is to say the same thing over and over. (It is
pretty entertaining to read about all this, by the way.) It’s also very worrisome to read - I keep thinking,
Omigosh, haven’t you noticed you are having a tough time, compared to other people?
But overall, it’s a pretty darn good trip, watching Dyer be oppositional about nearly everything in the world (and especially seafood!) This book is extremely odd, and you do not need to have read D. H. Lawrence, or care about literary criticism, to enjoy this book. It is a B.
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