Furthermore, I will look at Miller's use of puns within the novel and how they also contribute to a homoerotic reading. By looking at the nature of the male-male relationships, as well as the lack of emotion and presence in the male-female relationships, I will show that the most intimate relationships are between men, and that these relationships are expressed through the telling of stories about (heterosexual) sex this is the function of women within the novel: one has sex with a woman, not for the pleasure that the act brings, but for the pleasure that the recounting of the story to other men brings. This reading is dependent upon an interpretation of Eve Sedgwick that proposes male sexuality as a continuum. Miller depicts Paris as a magical place, a pilgrimage site for artists and wanderers. A meaty read, Tropic of Cancer is an exploration of what it truly means to be happy, and the author shows us that the answer isn’t always as simple as it seems.'Fighting Desires: Henry Miller's Queer Tropic' is an investigation of Tropic of Cancer that investigates the deeply repressed homoerotic desire that periodically surfaces. Telling the tale of a young, American writer and the sordid life he leads in bohemian Paris in the 1930s, we witness his encounters with prostitutes, pimps and penniless artists.īoasting a crude charm and energy throughout, Miller fuses fact and fiction to provide a book whose prose is often wildly self-indulgent offering a pilgrimatic Paris as the backdrop.

Henry Miller’s debut, Tropic of Cancer was one of them, suggested by my friend Tyler, and I chose it as my second post-BBC Big Read book, following on from The Natural way of Things by Charlotte Wood.Ī notorious novel that was banned in the US, the ‘free speech we now take for granted in literature’ has been attributed to its publication in 1934, and it is regarded by many as an import work of 20th century literature. This happened quite recently at a Boxing Day pool-party I went to in Valcluse, but happily I left with a number of recommendations to add to my reading pile. I’ve previously spoken about how in a social environment, I often turn into the biggest of book-bores, seeking recommendations from anyone and everyone, talking about my BBC Big Read challenge (which I finished last month), and, perhaps most cringe-worthy of all, giving random strangers details of my blog, in case they’re ever in need of a good book.

Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller