Henry Miller
Tropic of Cancer
318 pages, read in
paper-back
August brought
'Tropic of Cancer' as OLT's book selection and we had to scramble to attempt to
get back on cadence, which presented its own challenges for the month, namely a
shorter duration to read the book despite our efforts to kick it out an additional
week.
Which leads us to
the book of course.
Henry Miller's
Tropic of Cancer takes place in Paris in the late twenties and early thirties
and chronicles the adventures or life of Henry Miller during this time. Henry being an ex-patriot writer choosing to
live in squalor for ,whatever reason, and this destitution being one of the all
too apparent facts of the story. Other
themes of the story include the liberal use of prostitution, hardships of
writing, and of course gross disenchantment with the human race. For the time in which it was written I can
understand why this book was censored for so long, but now-a-days I would
expect this much shock and awe in a Tucker Max volume or Fifty Shades of Grey,
and so it has become a mainstay so to speak.
Overall this isn't a
novel but instead a rambling narrative that is hard to follow and offers little
congruity. Besides the themes mentioned
above there is not really anything that ties everything together. No lasting point the author wants you to walk
away with, no real reason except to say "this is what I went through and
these are my ramblings." Which is
all fine and good but left me wondering why I wandered down this path with him
if at the end it was simply an alcohol fueled rant about the failings of
humanity amidst his chosen experience of destitution.
I'll skip the rest
of his publications I think.
As far as OLT
book-club is concerned, potential spoilers below:
We had six people
finish, which was impressive, as most of the members finished day of the
meeting to make the meeting and score the book.
Prior to the day of it looked like the only people to make it to the
Champions Circle were to be myself and the selector of the book.
Peoples favorite
characters generally included Fillmore (perhaps Mr. Miller's nicest and most
honest friend), Van Norton an insufferable vagina seeker, and one shout out for
poor Kepi an Indian visitor who is shown Paris through Miller. The character selections also coincided with
peoples favorite moments and it should be noted that most everyone's favorite
moments were those of whimsy and didn't include the times in which Miller is
doing reprehensible acts but instead enjoying a luxury of fortune from
another's hospitality or whims of fortune.
While most agree that their least favorite moment was…well I shall say
'peering into the whispering eye of doom' and spare everyone the nitty-gritty,
we did have some honorable mentions for Mr. Miller stealing from friends and
Millers own description of the material before you.
Scoring went much
like this (from 1 to 10, one being the worst):
Th3ee: 3
Dust: 8
Harry-Beary: 6
Hylen: 3
SS: 4
Dave: 1
An average of
4.16/10
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