Tropic of Cancer

Rating:
Summary: A truly remarkable book, if not always an easy read
Review: Henry Miller's controversial TROPIC OF CANCER remains today a remarkable book: a stream-of-consciousness autobiographical novel chronicling Miller's own experiences as a poor starving artist in Paris. And though his experiences vary from bouts of drunkenness to nights spent chasing after sex to the occasional insight into life in general, his prose veers from the mundane to the poetic, with almost nothing in between. As the Amazon.com editorial review suggests, it truly is a remarkable literary work of self-confession, and Miller's mercurial prose remains amazing to read all the way 'til the end.

As I found this a mostly fascinating read, I won't go so far as to call this "overrated," like a lot of people my age (18) are tempted to do with a lot of much-acclaimed literary classics. I would be lying, though, if I didn't admit that I occasionally found its plotlessness rather wearying, and that I found Miller's lapses into floridity in his prose slightly irritating. Sometimes the prose, when he is feeling more poetically expansive, simply descends into unintelligibility---what is he talking about through all those fancy metaphors anyway? (The first few pages of the book suffer in this respect.) As for its lack of a real dramatic structure...well, it is obvious that that was hardly a concern for Miller, who I think is aiming for something different from the usual beginning, middle, and end here. TROPIC OF CANCER is, above all, about Miller's openness to different experiences, and I think it is that theme that binds together all the anecdotes Miller writes. By using this stream-of-consciousness style, he similarly opens the reader up to his own experiences, his own thoughts and feelings. It gives his prose an immensely compelling "live" feel to it: the reader feels as if he is experiencing Miller's nocturnal adventures and thought processes at the same time he himself does, so masterful he is in his prose in creating an authentic sense of place. And by the end of the novel, Miller himself has found a measure of satisfaction from his existence that he has been seeking out (however unconsciously) throughout the novel: he has achieved his personal "flow."

TROPIC OF CANCER is not always easy to read (especially with characters that don't elicit easy sympathy, particularly with their attitude towards women), but it remains a remarkable book nevertheless. If you don't always warm to everything Miller writes (or how he writes it), at least you will never ever feel that this is anything other than a very personal statement from a literary man who had a genuinely original perspective on things. TROPIC OF CANCER is the kind of work that is easy to admire, harder to love. Don't let that put you off, though, from getting into a one-of-a-kind literary experience. Recommended.

Rating:
Summary: miller is a bum
Review: I read this book after rave reviews from my free spirited friends and have to say that from a voyeuristic perspective it is perhaps interesting and allows us to see into a world we could view no other way.

However, I know a handful of guys who live like this today and I see nothing romantic or artistic about them. They are just people avoiding responsibilities and gorging themselves on other people's resources.

I recommend that you read the experience don't live it.