Depicting the hopeless, emotional polarity of a young couple, this novel follows their doomed marriage spent in a remote, tropical hell. She--described only as "the girl"--is young, sophisticated and sensitive. He, "Mr. Dog-Head," is an unreconstructed thug and heavy drinker who rapes his wife, otherwise passing his time bludgeoning rats with a tennis racket. Together with a visiting stranger, "Suede Boots"--who urges the woman to escape until he is banished by her husband--these characters live through the same situations twice. Their identities are equally real--or unreal--in each case. With slight variation in the background and the novel's atmosphere, neither the outcome nor the characters themselves are quite the same the second time. The constant question of the jungle "brain-lever" bird remains unanswered: "who are you?"
- ISBN10 0720616344
- ISBN13 9780720616347
- Publish Date 28 February 2014 (first published 20 March 1975)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Peter Owen Publishers
- Format eBook
- Pages 200
- Language English