Out of Sheer Rage: Wrestling with D.H. Lawrence

6. Out of Sheer Rage: Wrestling with D.H. Lawrence by Geoff Dyer (4.5/5)

I thought I was off the hook for a review since I've read this book before, but alas I've only mentioned it in passing on the blog. Fittingly, the book is largely about the struggle to write: in this case, a book about D.H. Lawrence. Dyer retraces Lawrence's steps, making the book part travelogue as well.

This time I was struck by a place that Dyer revisits during his travels, a place I have been and would very much like to see again: Petrified Forest National Park. I spent too much time on my second day marveling at views I'd seen the day before, so I ran out of time for the final section of the park. (There are a lot of longer hikes I didn't have time for as well.)

Also, Out of Sheer Rage was just in tune with my mood of late. At the beginning of the year I was writing and editing regularly with determination and purpose. Then... well, it was like skiing when the weather's warm. If you're not careful and hit a patch of grass, your skies will abruptly stop while you hurtle forward face-first to the ground. Except I imagine there being gravel this time.

Not that it was abrupt in a painful way. I got my application in the mail and then felt like I deserved a break to recharge. And now it's two months later and I haven't worked on my writing much at all. Still, as much as Dyer didn't feel like working on his book about Lawrence, he did manage to finish it. And that ties so deftly to my theme this year, Begin Anyway, that I can't ignore it.

Begin anyway, and when you falter, begin again.


3 years ago on TTaT: Nickerblog's Mystery Hotel