I'm just going to come right out and say it, I hate this book. By page 13 I was wondering what I had let myself in for, initially I thought I had picked up porn by mistake.
Don't get me wrong the cover art is a picture of a naked woman, which suggests nudity is going to be a theme. However not even reading D.H.Lawrence could have prepared me for the aggressiveness that Miller explores and describes sex. Most of the passages are to explicit to write about.
So what can I actually say? Miller is sticking his finger up to society, he makes that pretty clear from the start. "this is a prolonged insult, gob of spit in the face of Art, a kick in the pants to God, Man, Destiny, Time, Love, Beauty" The cancer is society itself, and Miller's aggression makes for uncomfortable reading.
The fact it is autobiographical, means these are Miller's true feelings. He isn't embodying a character because the main character is Miller, the other characters are based on people he knows. Is this shocking? I don't know how a person can feel all this, but then it is a side of desire which is often hidden and not discussed in literature. The closest I have experienced is Martin Amis' The Rachel Papers and I came away from that exactly how I am now.
The Tropic of Cancer is cancerous it rips to shreds love literature with just one word continuously written, which is to rude to write.
When I read books which were previously banned i.e. the likes of D.H.Lawrence and Radcliffe Hall, you see it was 'obscene' because they were modern ideals thought of 80 years before they were considered acceptable in society.
I don't agree with Tropic of Cancer and by the end I was to disgusted that all I can think of Henry Miller as is a dirty man.
Next book please... Quickly.
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