This surrealist story by Patrick White follows the life of a disturbed man through youth, adolescence and married life. Raised by a dominating mother who has little time for him, Clay is constantly bullied at school for being “different”. Later, he gets “a mundane government job and, after his mother’s death, settles into a loveless, unfulfilling marriage. For mental stimulation, he takes up writing. A product of this is an imaginary feminine figure that plays an increasing role in his life and ultimately seduces and destroys him. Themes include social conformity vs. being different, repression, alienation, loneliness, artistic expression, madness.
