Sometimes you need a trigger. You just don’t know what that trigger is.
“I have no money, no resources, and no hope. I am the happiest man alive.” I came across the quote. It is probably the best-known one from Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer. The provocative declaration, combined with its vanguardist aura, and the milestone the book represented for the advancement of free speech in the twentieth century, was enough to persuade me to read it.
Borrowing the statistical concept, I would say the most interesting thing that I got out of Tropic of Cancer is the variance / standard deviation of the book. Both in terms of actual content –interest in what is being narrated– and literary worth –appreciation for how it is being told–. Miller's iconic novel combines the most vulgar and anodyne passages, about some minor character farting on the first-person narrator’s face, with absolute gems.
Such gems include (p.131):
Or this one (p.197):
Or the very last page (p.256):
Would I read a book just for three pages. For these three pages –and a handful like them–, absolutely yes!
