Out of Sheer Rage by Geoff Dyer is a book “which is intermittently a book about D.H. Lawrence”.
More of a random case history than a sober study, it not divided into chapters which might denote a level of planning and systematic analysis that Dyer is at pains to avoid. The only concession to academia is an index giving the sources of quoted lines.
The loose structure allows Dyer to be sidetracked and to rap and rant about anything that is happening in his life while engaged (or thinking about being engaged) in this project.
It also conveniently means that the finished result is not likely to be scrutinised by ‘expert texperts’. This is a deliberate ploy since, in Dyer’s unequivocal view, “academic criticism kills everything it touches”.
At one point he poses the provocative question towards those who may be tempted to judge from their ivory towers: “How can you know anything about literature if all you have done is read books?”
Ultimately this is a book Dyer felt he had to write to get Lawrence out of his system but while it was meant to alleviate psychological disarray, at times it has the opposite effect.
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