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Sep 15, 2014lukasevansherman rated this title 2.5 out of 5 stars
"What is not in the open street is false, derived, that is to say, literature." I've been working my way through Henry Miller's books, partly out of obligation, partly because I was in Big Sur and I've come to the conclusion that he really just wrote one massive book. After you've read 2-3 of his novels, you realize they're all pretty much the same. Lots of sex, vulgar language, little plot, bohemian ideals, stuff about writing, egotistical male characters, etc. Did I mention the sex? Credited with freeing American lit. from its Puritan roots, Miller is something of a link between the high modernists (Eliot, Woolf) and the Beats. He has a sort of stream of consciousness style, but it's an extroverted style, if that makes sense. And his depiction of the demimonde, as well as somewhat sloppy writing would show up in Kerouac and others. "Black Spring" is his second novel, from 1936, and has less explicit sex than some of his other books. It's more of a bildungsroman, describing his growing up in Brooklyn (it's hard to separate Miller the author from his characters) to his arrival in Paris. He's an important and influential author, but I'm not sure how good he is.