Devil's Race-Track, Mark Twain's Great Dark Writings

Rating:
Summary: Half-hearted Cynicism
Review: As a lazy philosopher in search of a belief system, I found this book exceptionally provocative, if occaisionally irritating. I'm generally not a fan of compilations, particularly when many of the pieces are unfinished manuscripts. However, it was wonderful to see so many of my own half-formed questions given an eloquent voice. The beauty of these writings is that though Twain/Clemmens pokes fun at or denounces the futility of the human struggle and our attempts to understand, he never gives in to his own dark thoughts. Throughout it all there is an undercurrent of hope. Contradictory, yes, but well worth look.

Rating:
Summary: Not That Bad
Review: But not that good either. This book contains writings that were all attempted after Mark Twain was over 70 years old and after his daughter had died. The majority of the book is composed of incomplete manuscripts, some of which are highly amusing. Most of the stories here start out the same way . . . he tries to get a story going which is gloomy, defeatest, and which ends in disaster. But Twain's natural sense of vigour always gets in the way and st a critical point, the stories tend to take a different turn than he had intended, thus he abaondons them. There are some interesting stories here. One of them includes the story of a slave who, through craft, turns the tables on his white master (named George Harrison, oddly enough!) and enslaves him, which is a rather interesting thought for those modern critics who continually chastise Twain as a racist. A few polemical pieces are included which are bound to irritate the Christians -- not all of these are gloomy, however, as the editor seems to think Twain intended them -- he obviously enjoys his heretical antics a great deal. Although this collection did not really impress me that much, there are several pices of writing here in which Twain shines like he has in few other works. A social statement on the Natie Americans and on growing old are also included. Although not for everybody, fans of Samuel Clemens will find this book a rare treat.