WILDERNESS

In 1991 appeared a book later nominated for the Bram Stoker Award as Best First Novel. It was WILDERNESS, by prolific Richmond, VIrginia writer Dennis Danvers (b. 1947). ***** The tale is set in Danvers's home town of Richmond (with a grand finale escape among wild wolf packs in Ontario's giant -- bigger than Delaware -- Algonquin Provincial Park. ***** The novel's all-North American cast and setting are in striking contrast to the 1995 British film version of the same name, allegedly unhelpfully cut to 90 minutes in a release for USA markets. The film is set in London, with final scenes in and near a non-existent wolf sanctuary in the Highlands of Scotland, * * * * *Film tracks novel in more than usual detail but, when it does not, the film is the loser. In both versions Alice White, a young urbanized woman has, since puberty, become a female wolf every full moon. ***** As a girl Alice had ripped out the throat of a young man trying to rape her. She had confessed but no one believed her. After a short confinement in a mental hospital, she was released to her parents. ***** As an adult, Alice confides her story to a psychiatrist who disbelieves her too, but keeps her talking hoping to find a cure. Doctor Adams also teaches her self-hypnosis, so that she can make her delusion go away. The young woman, Alice, driven into sexual promiscuity, also reveals her secret to the first true love of her life. Towards tale's end both lover and his ex-wife actually see Alice in the city as a wolf. *****I will not spoil either film or novel by more detail. Both, especially the novel, probe rather convinclingly aspects of the nature of human personality (including unusually close bonding and even identity among mother-children, twins and lovers) and the possibility of shape-changing. There is no religious or moral judgmentalism, much scientific probing, The film is better than average, the book MUCH better than average. -OOO-