Tropic of Cancer

Book 60 of my 2018 Reading Challenge

Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller

Summary (via Goodreads)
Now hailed as an American classic Tropic of Cancer, Henry Miller’s masterpiece, was banned as obscene in this country for twenty-seven years after its first publication in Paris in 1934. Only a historic court ruling that changed American censorship standards, ushering in a new era of freedom and frankness in modern literature, permitted the publication of this first volume of Miller’s famed mixture of memoir and fiction, which chronicles with unapologetic gusto the bawdy adventures of a young expatriate writer, his friends, and the characters they meet in Paris in the 1930s. Tropic of Cancer is now considered, as Norman Mailer said, "one of the ten or twenty great novels of our century."

My Opinion
I didn't know what the book was about going into it, only that it's a banned book with a provocative cover.  I couldn't take it anywhere because of the bare breast on the cover - I don't really care about women showing their nipples but didn't want to get strange looks while sitting at a cheer competition.

The intro (not by the author) was long-winded and pretentious so I was not off to a good start.  The writing itself isn't bad but the character was all over the place.  I can see why it was a big deal when it was written in 1934 but if someone wrote it today I would say they were writing shocking stuff solely for the sake of being shocking; maybe that's what the author was doing at the time as well.

A Few Quotes from the Book
"I have no money, no resources, no hopes. I am the happiest man alive."

"Paris is like a whore. From a distance she seem ravishing, you can't wait until you have her in your arms. And five minutes later you feel empty, disgusted with yourself. You feel tricked."