A review by versmonesprit
Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller

inspiring reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I could say so many things about this book, the writing, the way it feels, how it’s like an experience to be had. But Karl Shapiro said it best back in 1960: “I call Henry Miller the greatest living author because I think he is. I do not call him a poet because he has never written a poem; he even dislikes poetry, I think. But everything he has written is a poem in the best as well as in the broadest sense of the word.”

What then you might wonder has made me not give Tropic of Cancer a perfect rating? You’d be surprised to learn it’s not the raging misogyny, because I can actually handle that coming from men, especially from men of the previous century. What you expect can’t hurt you.

What made me unable to label this book ‘perfect’ are the racist slurs used. My count may be off, but he hits the ‘trinity’ of racist slurs with the most used being the n-word by far, a total of 7 times in its ‘masculine form’, and an additional 5 times in ‘feminine’. Each time a racist slur was used, it took away so much from the book, from the beauty of its prose, from its flow. It made me want to fight a dead man. Truly what a shame that a magnificent writer can be a horrendous person.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings