"The life and work of Henry Miller first shocked and then fascinated twentieth-century Americans. In this study Leon Lewis discusses the seven books by Miller that constitute the heart of his achievement -- Tropic of Cancer, Black Spring, the Colossus of Maroussi, Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch, Tropic of Capricorn, Sexus, and Nexus.
Showing Miller's connection to the heart of the American literary tradition as exemplified by Whitman and Thoreau, Lewis analyzes Miller's strengths and weaknesses as a writer and thinker. He examines Miller's development of a singular narrative voice drawn from Camus's concept of rebellion and various elements of surrealism and modernism. In looking at Miller's use of chronology, cartography, and anatomy, the author describes the shape and form of each book and shows how each fits into a scheme which Miller devised early in his life."
"This essentially optimistic vision of Miller's troubled cosmos serves as a well-informed, articulate introduction to the flagrant and lyrical productions of Miller's imagination." -- Patrick O'Donnell, University of Arizona, American Literature