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Double-Wolf by Brian Castro

by
July 1991, no. 132

Double-Wolf by Brian Castro

Allen & Unwin, 183 pp, $19.95 pb

Double-Wolf by Brian Castro

by
July 1991, no. 132

Outside there is a row of walnut trees. On one of them seven white wolves are sitting. They are staring at him. From a high and supple branch, looking like a wolf, his sister Anna is swinging. Behind them, the city is on fire.

Wolves and goats. The goats represent the ego. They control time, represent culture, continuity, the status quo. They live in the grandfather clock that is at once history and the records of the psychoanalyst. The wolves are the id, the unconscious, desire. They are also reason, and they triumph over time. The Wolf-Man led Freud to his understanding of the war of the id on the ego. Freud identified as neurotics those who, unable to live with the war, regress to the instinctive, the primitive, the animal.

John McLaren reviews 'Double-Wolf' by Brian Castro

Double-Wolf

by Brian Castro

Allen & Unwin, 183 pp, $19.95 pb

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Comment (1)

  • To be honest, this was an entertaining read - the review that is.
    However, it's more of an essay than a review. It reveals a lot about the reviewer's perspective, sadly overwhelming the point of reviewing the book's content. It fails to really coach a reader into whether their time is well spent in buying/consuming it.
    I feel this review/essay needs a review
    Posted by Jack Thomson
    11 March 2020

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