“La Vie Boheme”

Tropic of Cancer By Henry Miller

Tropic of cancer is probably the most famous book of Henry Miller, because of its sexual and obscene language and because it was censured in the U.S for 27 years.

This autobiographical novel, written in 1934, sets in the contemporary Paris, and narrates the life of artists in that time, it was called “la vie boheme”.

This kind of life consists in enjoying the pleasures of life, women and very often, the money that an artist had.

When I was in the library looking for a book to do my report on, I was interested in this one in particular, because of the reviews and critics, there were very different opinions. Some critics said that it was the best book of the time and many others said that it was an insult to English literature.

In my opinion I didn’t like the book at all, I think is a reflection of the emptiness Henry Miller had, and how he only thought about him all the time. There isn’t really much of a plot in the story, just very disgusting details of sex scenes. Sometimes he would do a philosophical commentary but mainly without meaning.

So the truth, I think these book its rubbish, but, since I had to read it I tried to find some positive things about it.

For example, Miller wrote in a very detailed way which would give you a pretty good idea of the way things happened, not only on sex scenes but in other situations. He also described the way an artist should live their life or the way an artist lived.

A quote I liked was "An artist is always alone - if he is an artist. No, what an artist needs is loneliness." In this quote I think he reflects the way he feels, but in an arrogant way, with sarcasm.

Other thing that I found interesting about the book it’s that Miller used a very obscene language and referred all the time to women as “cunts”, I think he used this language just to create discontent among the readers and to shock them.

He wanted to make this novel more controversial, and enjoyed making the reader’s stomach turn.

From the many sex acts Miller describes in the book I can tell he has no love, he never does the act of love, just has sex, with prostitutes or married women who are tired of their husbands. There's never any intimacy in the act, no beauty, and no love.

In conclusion I think this book it’s only important because of its controversial content but its meanless or may it doesn’t need to have a meaning, maybe that’s the point of Miller, that life its meanless, even with the greatest pleasures of “La Vie Boheme.”