Tropic of Cancer, Henry Miller - Review 

In the midst of re-reading Anais Nin's unexpurgated journals of 1933, I am plunged into the world of Louveciennes, Nin, Miller, Artaud, Allendy, Rank and other pioneers of the mind and soul of that era. Reading is followed by youtube documentaries, Henry Miller at the moment. Then along comes this review by a book-lover I've not seen or heard of before I am nearly jumping out of my skin. Grant is as passionate about Miller as Miller is passionate about life. My tribe! You are so young, you so get it, and I'm so happy to have discovered you. Thank You!

Henry was rock and roll before there even was rock and roll. He wrote with such rawness. Now modern authors win grants. Spend four years writing a novel on computer and churn out 178 page novels. And with that novel they hope it win be turned into a movie or a series. Great video and I'm looking forward to hearing about Europe. I do like your focus on more American literature. American literature always seems so fresh and new.

Wonderful share about Henry and The Tropic of Cancer. I discovered Miller in the early 1970s. That discovery, for better or worse, (ha ha ha ha) changed my life and everything about it forever. The late 1960s and 70s for me were so much about what you say at the end of this video. I had a group of friends and a brother, we all did that same thing. We were always haunting bookstores. When we found something of interest we read it, shared it, and had many a lively discussion. Those were magical times when literature was real and much of the fabric of every day life. Thanks for this post.

Best video on this book on RU-vid. Loved hearing about your relation to the book. Inspiring. Write that first novel!

I love that you talk about books and authors that I love and that nobody talks about anymore. Henry Miller made me laugh and turned me on to Proust. He was another writer who made me laugh out loud.

"Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch" for me the best

Excellent review of Tropic of Cancer. Subscribed.

I read Tropic or Cancer/Capricorn, The Rosy Crucifixion, , Black Spring and the Air Conditioned Nightmare back in the 80's and felt the same way. I used his influence as a template for my life .

Just uploaded 16 minutes ago. I'm in!!

This may be your best video yet, Grant. The word I'd use for Miller is "evocative."

Wow!

wow, wow, wow, AWESOME!!! I guarantee your enthusiasm got me! It's just that what you explained that made you like the book touched me, it has to do with me, and how come I haven't read it yet! This one has already moved to the front of the list! (I've been reading less lately...) and I'm looking forward to your story in Europe, and you also passed through Lisbon, my city, in the "fearful" year 2000 😄 (I hope that the subscriptions on the channel quickly reach 1000 😉). Extraordinary review.

I read it so long ago. It is on my shelf, so I think I should read again. I think I was camping in Big Sur when I finished it. Miller was a friend and mentor to Lawrence Durrell, as you said. I also have the book of letters between them.

Now I guess I'll have to find a copy of Appointment in Samarra. I tore through most of Miller in my youth, I guess when I was still trying to figure out what the hell men wanted from me. Decidedly unhelpful. But what a pang of nostalgia I felt on seeing those three colours of Sexus, Plexus and Nexus! Those books took over my life for a while and I remember pouring all of my animus into them. I ended up hating Miller with a young woman's ferocity. Good times.

I remember Tropic of Cancer being the one book I had to read - because it had been banned, but I have to admit that I don't remember too much about it now, as it was a very long time ago. What an amazing year was 1934! I've just had the pleasure of reading Burmese Days, which is a blistering read. I think that censorious attitude to sex has been very much an aspect of British culture too, and separates it from the rest of Europe. The French were always seen as our dirty neighbours. Very repressed people are the British, especially the middle classes.

In college (1975) I found a copy of _Tropic of Cancer_ lying around, like someone forgot it. So I took it and started reading parts of it. Unfortunately, my college workload being what it was, I had no time to read it all or most of it, but I was impressed with it, and I liked what I read. So I am putting the book on my TBR. Thanks for the suggestion. I've read many of the other 1934 books you mentioned. I'm especially partial to John O'Hara; _Appointment in Samarra_ was his breakthrough novel.

Hemmingway was already a celebrity by the time Tropic was written, I never thought about Miller being older than Ernest. I think I preferred Capricorn, but I'm not a big fan of ex-pat tales. He is like a big brother to Bukowski & Kerouac, blending a autobiography & Fiction in a way Hemmingway only hinted at with his alter-egos like Nick Adams, but also the first to say the American way of life is killing our heats and souls. Miller's body of work is uneven, but I really liked Night of the Assassin, a book-length literary essay on Rimbaud, Under the Roof Tops of Paris, his porn novel, and the Air Conditioned nightmare, his travelogue of America. Two additional thoughts censorship court cases for Naked Lunch & Howl had been won before Tropic could come to America in 1965, & perhaps TOC's real American literary breakthrough was not memoir as fiction but the plotless plot.

I didn't care for TOC. However, I do agree that one has to tune out everything apart from the writing. You get married. You have a kid. You become a slave to the system. And you write for 20, 30, 40 years without success. It's all ashes-- ashes. But you still keep on writing because...well...you just do. And then one fine day, it's no longer ashes. There's a Chinese saying: A pot of water boils slowly and then all at once. I look back upon my life and I realize now that those 40 wasted years weren't really wasted at all. It just took that long for the water to start boiling. Regards. Rich Leiter

Burmese Days is not as good as other novels on the list, or at least in my opinion it is not even close to 1984