Wild Animus

by Rich Shapero | Mystery & Thrillers |
ISBN: Global Overview for this book
Registered by paul0 of Oxford, Oxfordshire United Kingdom on 4/12/2004
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This book is in the wild! This Book is Currently in the Wild!
2 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by paul0 from Oxford, Oxfordshire United Kingdom on Monday, April 12, 2004
In the late 1960s, a college drop-out retreats to the wilderness to discover his inner, feral self -- and to research his LSD-assisted novel "Wild Animus" (somehow that isn't a surprise). There he undergoes a Dionysian transformation and imagines that he is a ram, pursued by a wolf pack. His uncertainty about whether to flee or to surrender to the predators reflects his uneasy relationship with his long-suffering girlfriend.

Cue endless tracts of cod-philosophising about "the heart's surrender" and "imponderable vastnesses" and "worlds beyond imagining" and the god within us. There are also some toe-curling, sub-DH Lawrence descriptions of sex-as-mystic-communion.

Shapero makes much of the tension between this shamanic quest and the demands of everyday, sustainable life -- and he does intermittently let us see his main character as deluded and dangerous. When he does that, you see that Shapero can be alive to the nuances of people's interactions. The trouble is that for much of the novel, we actually see through the consciousness of this main character, the acid-casualty, new-age guru. And as HE regards the human, social self as a mere "wrapper" to be discarded, much of the novel doesn't grapple with human behaviour or experiences at all.

Another problem is that Shapero can't help dumping all his specialised knowledge (geology, botany, mountaineering) in this novel. And unless you are a keen orienteer, you'll never follow what's happening as his "ram" character gambols around glaciers and crevasses.

This novel is set in 1969 ... and somehow you can imagine it would have been popular in that era, alongside Herman Hesse (though this novel isn't the Steppenwolf it might aspire to be) or Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

Journal Entry 2 by paul0 at == somewhere in Holborn == in Holborn, Greater London United Kingdom on Monday, April 12, 2004
Release planned for Tuesday, April 13, 2004 at lower floor at a meetup in London Cittie of York pub, England United Kingdom.

assuming I am there, I will have released this ...

Journal Entry 3 by monsta from -- Somewhere in London 🤷‍♀️ , Greater London United Kingdom on Tuesday, May 18, 2004
Another book I picked up at the end of the meetup last week as I didn't want it to be left and stuck in lost property. I have already got my own copy of this so will release into the wild.

Still haven't got round to reading so plan to release at lunchtime today - 06/08/04.

Journal Entry 4 by monsta at Drury Lane Gardens in Holborn, Greater London United Kingdom on Friday, August 6, 2004
Released on Friday, August 06, 2004 at Drury Lane Gardens in London-Holborn, England United Kingdom.

Plan to release this lunchtime in the Drury Lane Gardens.

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