Henry Miller: A Life

a little turgid but still a good bio of an interesting character. interesting to watch someone on the cutting edge become so quickly politically incorrect during his lifetime

At a certain moment in my life, it seemed that many many writers I admired were talking about or recommending Miller. I decided to give his books a try. The first thing that I ever read was Gliding into the Everglades, a little book of essays. I actually liked it, and felt encouraged to pick up the Tropics books. Which I loathed. Don't get me wrong, I had taken my history of literature courses. I understood the boost that Miller gave to personal narrative and the influence that he undoubtedly had shown. I just didn't want to read anything else by him. And there I remained-- until about a year ago. On a whim, I saw the Ferguson biography and decided to buy it. I was curious if it would make me look at Miller differently. The answer is: not so much. It *has* influenced me to go back to his essays and give The Air-Conditioned Nightmare a try. However, it did not improve my opinion of his novels, nor did it make me like him at all as a person. It doesn't help that both June and Anais Nin were the kinds of women that I deeply dislike. (Actually, as a writer, Nin is one of the authors I actually like much less than Miller. I typically love diaries of every kind, but I find her self-indulgent crap completely unreadable.) Hystrionic, manipulative and not very clever-- Miller seemed to choose women to turn into muses that were the very opposite of the type I wanted to read about. So in that sense, it was an explanation (of sorts) for my gut level reaction to his work. Ferguson is a good biographer. I thought that he maintained an excellent balance between detail and readability. He seems fair and respectful to Miller without being adoring. His prose is skilled without being obtrusive. Based on this book, I would be interested to read his biography of Knut Hamsun. Recommended.

Robert Ferguson has written a spectacular biography on legendary writer Henry Miller. Ferguson, unlike other Miller biographers (such as Mary Dearborne, Alfred Perles), relates the details of Miller's life & works without personal bias or an angle. Although a very tough task, Ferguson is able to distinguish reality as it happened from reality as reported by Henry Miller (which at times is filled with bald-faced lies, such as claiming to have met Emma Goldman although she was not allowed in the city when Miller claims to have met her) most of the time. While some fans of Miller will not like the work because it "spoils the mystique of a legend", others will, I'm sure, agree that this is a thorough, fair and accurate biography about a man who tried very hard to erase the tracks he made in life with all new marks created by semi-autobiographical romances. And dang good ones at that!