n Literator : Journal of Literary Criticism, Comparative Linguistics and Literary Studies - Compassion and compromise

---

Love, Hades & other animals, Wendy Woodward : review

Abstract

The title of the volume reflects the three parts of the book. The first, "Love", is to do with remembered people, places, objects and stories. At times, though, there is a sense of the pointlessness of reconstitutive memory, a sense of the past escaping our attempts to recapture it ("Object relations", p. 15). There are also touches of whimsy, as in "The small Brazilian poet of my dreams" (p. 12-13), the Brazilian poet being a type of antagonist against whom Woodward can in a slightly humorous way define herself and her values. Eastern philosophy ("Going against the Tao", p. 16) and meditation ("Winter-night meditation, Dharamsala, India", p. 14) also find a place in this section, in relation to responses to mourning and past grief.