Ryan's review
Miserable Miracle (New York Review Books Classics)
by Henri Michaux
Ryan's review
Miserable Miracle (New York Review Books Classics) by Henri Michaux
Ryan's review
rating:
The "writer takes drugs and tells the tale" summary does not do this justice, particularly if that conjures visions of Hunter S. Thompson. This reads almost more like travel writing where the space is internal and the behavioral/built culture is formed from the pharmacological/philosophical aspect of a given drug ... comparative ethnography of Mescaline and Hashish. Hardly surprising since Michaux has also written some excellent travelogues. The writing is occasionally terrifying (and terrifyingly beautiful) ... I get glimpses of Lovecraftian architecture, of Kafkaesque labyrinths, and, yes, of Burrough's more cerebral passages, but all tempered by a very modern poetic respect for the stark, the simple, the clean. Surrealist line drawing, and the drawings in the book, are apt visual metaphors. He manages to capture the infinite, uncomposed nature of Mescaline in with concision and form. No small accomplishment. And kudos for giving me my new favorite word: ruiniform.
