MY STRUGGLE

by Geoff Brown ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 24, 1975

There are fewer overt concessions here than in Brown's 1967 novel of a disturbed boy -- I Want What I Want -- in a persuassive self-portrait of a schizophrenic which at one point states that the conflict is one ""between meaning and existence"" and at another that ""one is insane because what one thinks is not relevant."" Some of Eric Hudson's early years are spent against the background of World War II (the ultimate paranoia?) so it is perhaps relevant, or at least understandable, that when he is last seen in an asylum he often assumes the stance of Hitler. In between: there are passages dealing with his earlier life as his ""Mare's"" bastard while the favored brother will die in the war; on his years at an art college where he falls in love, not altogether unreciprocally, with a girl who finds him too ""chaotic""; and throughout there are assorted comments on society, education, intolerance, male/female dualities, morality, etc., some of which may be valid as the shrapnel of a sick mind (after all, who's to evaluate it?) however intractable as the stuff of fiction. The title may be all too easily self-fullfilling.

Pub Date: March 24, 1975

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1975

Categories: FICTION