The Woodwitch - Mushrooms and the Loss of Masculinity
I received this book in my January 2024 Night Worms "Lost Souls" package. The package arrived two days after Stephen Gregory passed away, which prompted me to pick this book up right away in his memory.
The story follows Andrew Pinkney and his dog, Phoebe. It takes place exclusively in the woods of Wales where Andrew was sent to 'get away for a while' after he hit a woman for laughing at his sexual performance. That life-changing moment for Andrew causes rejection and humiliation to take over his mind. In the idyllic woods and moldering cabin, he finds beauty and monstrosity in nature, and that includes the corpse-scented stinkhorn, or woodwitch, mushroom. He becomes obsessed with them due to their phallic nature and their representation of all he feels he cannot achieve. A descent into a solitary madness ensues, revealing that Andrew is a character to be pitied and abhorred.
For me, the best part of this book was the nature that Andrew found himself in. It was described so beautifully and I could imagine every scene, feel every rain drop, and smell every hint of life or death upon the air. I felt awful for Andrew who seemed like a big child at times, but also acted in ways that suggested he was not in control of his emotions or actions.
I really enjoyed this book, and going into it knowing that the topic is really about an inability to hold an erection, one can temper their expectations. It absolutely captures how easy it can be to fall into a depression and mindset based solely on a single event that felt much bigger than it really was (ha).