Black Spring
by Henry MillerSign in to Goodreads to see your friends' reviews of this book.
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in September, 2008
recommended to Jason by:
probably Dan Lynchrecommends it for: Poets, madmen, cunts, trolls, men, women, angels
In the heat of the late afternoon the city rises up like a huge polar bear shaking off its rhododendrons.
If you can't enjoy this line, you might not enjoy this book. This line is perfect summary, the imagery that needs to be connected is fierce and brilliant. The point is that you are going to be falling into the recesses of Miller's brain, dancing with his Id as a stripper dances with the pole, you'll need to make the connections, you'll need to uncover the brilliance of the geog...more
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Read in August, 2007
I was I hadn't given John his book back before writing this review, since it's a very difficult book to describe without actually quoting text. "Black Spring" is an interesting read, but one that needs to be approached in a certain way. You have to entirely give up any attachment to narrative - the book is almost pure stream of consciousness. It is a semi-autobiographical jumble, jumping around in time and place without much tying the disparate strings together.
If you...more
If you...more
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Read in August, 2008
recommended to Rupert by:
I did.recommends it for: anyone
Henry in fine spirits, Black Spring is a collection of works seeded together and wrapped up in Miller's later years, the final novel in the Tropics series. Very close in some parts to Lawrence Durrell's The Black Book, which I am to think influenced Miller, as there are some aspects that are too glucose for Henry's regular style.
I just let Millers timeless rants flood me, not worrying too much if my mind wandered, I'd always return back to some part which managed to pull me in deep within t...more
I just let Millers timeless rants flood me, not worrying too much if my mind wandered, I'd always return back to some part which managed to pull me in deep within t...more
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in October, 2007
Miller moves vividly between describing his childhood in Brooklyn to his adventures in the streets of Paris. In Black Spring he incorporates his views of everything from watercolor painting to the best places in France to take a piss.
I always get the feeling when I'm reading his work that he read Thus Spoke Zarathustra at some point early on and realized that he too could be a writer.
I always get the feeling when I'm reading his work that he read Thus Spoke Zarathustra at some point early on and realized that he too could be a writer.
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Read in January, 1989
I had a Henry Miller phase in my youth when I devoured everything I could find written by him. What I remember from Black Spring was that Miller really cut loose from any conventional story-telling. Dispensing with plot and other niceties, he let it rip in a free-form kind of jazz writing where feeling was all. Extraordinary but hard to take on a long-term basis.
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Read in May, 1996
recommends it for:
Miller fans
This book changed my life. No hyperbole. I never looked at the world the same way after reading this. It was also present at the moment of serendipity when I finally "got" modernism. Probably the best birthday gift I've ever received. Thanks Ken.
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Read in May, 2008
"We are all of us in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars." That's Oscar Wilde. Try reading this in the lobby of a storage unit so that your voice can boom off of the walls, because it is great like that. Very much sex sex sex, sex and decay.
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Read in July, 2008
This book contains some of Henry Miller's most profound and personal writing, as in "The Tailor Shop" and "The Angel is My Watermark." But there's also a whole lot of absolute ridiculousness, babble that really isn't a lot of fun to have to slog through.
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Read in September, 2007
recommends it for:
people who like explorers
This book contains some entertaining musing and one particularly striking surrealistic chapter.
(Maybe surrealistic is the wrong word, but I'm not over-technical.)
This is the kind of book where I find a few favorite sentences.
(Maybe surrealistic is the wrong word, but I'm not over-technical.)
This is the kind of book where I find a few favorite sentences.
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Tropic of Cancer is a monument.
Black Spring is cracked vase.
Black Spring is a tattered photograph of someone you love, but whose name escapes you.
Black Spring challenges you to consider the importance of pissing.
Black Spring is cracked vase.
Black Spring is a tattered photograph of someone you love, but whose name escapes you.
Black Spring challenges you to consider the importance of pissing.
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Read in May, 2008
This is a very uneven book. I gave it 4 stars because passages get 5 stars, but certain parts are totally skippable. Miller at his best is inspired and at his worst is boring. This book has both extremes.
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Read in May, 2005
While Tropic of Cancer will always be my favorite, this is delightful. It concisely encompasses his prolific passion and reveals his diversity and talent as an artist more than any of his other works.
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Read in June, 1991
Henry Miller, la manera de ver las cosas que te hace ser diferente, la idea de hacer de tu vida una obra de arte, la idea de no darse por vencido, la lujuria de vivir
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Read in May, 2007
recommends it for:
no one
Basically?
That Miller is Nabokov, sans plot, wit, playfulness or purpose. Long streams of rarely heard nouns do not a classic make.
That Miller is Nabokov, sans plot, wit, playfulness or purpose. Long streams of rarely heard nouns do not a classic make.
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Read in January, 2003
recommended to Nom de Plume by:
Brian Vigilione "my drummer boy"
Deep love!!! His word are sweet poison. Given to me to read in while touring with a band. It was a magical meeting with Miller!
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Read in January, 2006
def. one of my favorites out of all his works.
more introspective and surreal. lovely word patterns and images.
more introspective and surreal. lovely word patterns and images.
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in April, 2008
i learned that if henry miller were still alive, i'd probably be the head of his fan club.
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Read in November, 2005
recommends it for:
Henry MIller fans
A bit more insight on the paris days, a bit more background from the fourteenth ward...
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reading this book made me remember to remember that Henry Miller is fucking amazing.
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