STAG BOY

by William Rayner ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 21, 1973

After finding an ancient antlered helmet in a cave Jim achieves a kind of mystical union with the great black stag that roams Exmoor Park. In a series of midnight scenes fairly pulsating with sexual metaphor, Jim as stag visits his sweetheart Mary and wins her trust. Meanwhile in the day, he's occupied with devising canny escapes and small revenges on the hunters who are determined to kill him before the end of the season, but Jim is saved by the docile Mary who assumes the ""pronged male crown"" in the nick of time and by replacing Jim's vows of blood with her own of love draws his spirit away from the about to be slaughtered stag. Raynor (author of adult novels such as The World Turned Upside Down and Knifeman) is a powerful writer -- unfortunately not so good as D. H. Lawrence, whose themes and imagery he translates here into less explicit if no less effulgent terms. Like Lawrence, he's likely to elicit extravagant and widely divergent responses.

Pub Date: Feb. 21, 1973

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1973

Categories: FICTION