The characters in Fifth Business are said to be based on Jungian character types. The Deptford Trilogy is said to be influenced by Jungian philosophy. He was celebrated, not only in Canada, for his essays literary criticism humorous writing and plays as well for his eleven novels. Lucy Maud Montgomery (author of Anne of Green Gables) Margaret Attwood and, maybe, Leonard Cohen would be the limit of the Canadian writers most of us could call to mind on a typical night of trivial pursuit. 1 It seems that Australians, generally, do not have a great knowledge of the literature of their fellow former British colonies. Perhaps the deciding factor was that three novels, albeit, a trilogy, would give me some defence against the repeated domestic criticism that I never read any novels. Besides, it seemed incongruous to buy the trilogy as a single volume (as Penguin now offered it) and start reading somewhere in the middle. However, more long standing members of the book club had read Fifth Business, the first of the trilogy, some years earlier, and would have me at a disadvantage in discussions. In mid-2010, when John, the consultant town planner, recommended The Manticore, the second book of Robertson Davies’ The Deptford Trilogy as the latest task for the Blokes’ Book Club, I was faced with a dilemma.
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