Double Wolf Brian Castro 1991

Dustjacket synopsis:
"Double-Wolf, Brian Castro's third novel, is a brilliant fictional creation whihc succeeds also in being humane, utterly readable and sometimes very funny.

"It takes as its starting point the life of Wolf-Man, Freud's most famous patient who inspired his work on infant sexuality, a life revealed in counterpoint to that of Artie Catacomb, con-man, psychoanalyst and archivist, who ends his days in the Blue Mountains, relegating the Wolf-Man to the world of myth even as he avoids the baleful glare of the shop assistant who would prevent him from entirely reconstructing the Wolf-Man's story."

Quotes:
"A demonstration of the deep pleasure a beautifully shaped work of fiction is capable of providing...a novel of the highest merit." - A. P. Riemer

First Paragraph

KATOOMA
Winter, 1978

A misty rain is falling.

It smears the glass like somebody's spit. Somebody talking too loud, too fast.

It is cold, but not cold enough. Not yet. In the late afternoon when it is almost dark there will be rumours of snow. Perhaps one of the last snowfalls here for all time. The eucalypts brood in the chasms, as black as the shelf of rocks worn and wet on the other side. Far better than trying to outrun fires roaring up the gorges in those mad summers. Wet black rocks fired from the bowels of another millenia

This used to be a coal siding. 'The Crushers' it was called then, subsiding escarpments and waterfalls crushing the breath out of you a thousand metres above sea level on an uplifted plateau outside of Sydney. Nowadays Katoomba is littered with hotels, hospitals, mental institutions.

From the Allen and Unwin paperback edition, 1991.

Note:
This novel was shortlisted for the 1992 Miles Franklin Award.

This page and its contents are copyright © 2004 by Perry Middlemiss, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Last modified: December 14, 2004.