This is just the type of book that I enjoy thoroughly.

Tropic of Cancer was banned for 27 years in America due to obscenety, something that I find ridiculous. I can imagine the censors of the time sitting around on their high chairs deciding what I or anybody else would be allowed to read. It just annoys me immensly that people think, even today, that they are better judges to decide what ideas and words are suitable for me than I am. If I think a book is obscene to the point where I do not want to read it - I don't. It is as simple as that.

Now, back to the book. Is it obscene? I find it very frank and descriptive. There are whores in the book, their services are bought, yes, and there are descriptions of them just as there are descriptions of Miller's friends and the bars they visit. Is it obscene to describe something? Are some things wrong to descibe? I find this book less obscene than a comparable work of fiction as the Tropic is a semi-autobiography. As it is a autobiography it is safe to assume that large part of the content is based on true events and therefore I rate it as less obscene. I draw that line back to the purpose of the text - to shock or to describe. I find "to describe" to be less obscene than a complete work of fiction. Partly because I rate reality as important, and if something happened, I think it is important to tell and describe. A complete work of fiction will never be as important as reality, or a description of real events. A highly subjective decision on my part.

But let's not get carried away with the obscenety in the book. It is as most people know what it is most famous for, but hardly the point of the book. It is an semi-autobiography of Miller from the time as he was a struggling writer living in Paris in the 1930s. And therein lies the interesting aspect for me. How was life in the 1930s, in Paris for the lost generation? Fantastic? Hardly. Interesting? Yes!

I am drawn to the age of the lost generation. I love the books, the way many of those authors write and I find reading them a delight. These writers influenced the coming generations and their work is important. The book has earned its reputation of whores and bars, but in today's world with reality shows on television, I believe none will be very shaken with what is written on the book's pages. Go read it!