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olgaokhrimenko's review against another edition
funny
informative
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
4.25
illymally's review against another edition
3.0
Alternately amazing and terrible - I think half the chapters are unedited drunken tear? But, the lucid stuff is so very good, and funny. I would recommend guiltlessly skimming sections that bog down into disconnected philosophical ramblings and stick with the storytelling - that's where he excels
gracehale5's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
eskimonika's review against another edition
funny
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
maxwelldemay's review against another edition
5.0
1 /4 : If interested, read
[Even in Earthly paradise, Henry Miller still can't find time to write.]
'Big Sur...' sets a sweeping stage for a scene which dominates the book's back 4th, a manic tale of the house guest from Hell.
Otherwise, it is an extended meditation from a man who has found his bliss. It can offer wisdom, but ill else for all those others still searching for theirs.
I listened to a narration by Tom Perkins
[Even in Earthly paradise, Henry Miller still can't find time to write.]
'Big Sur...' sets a sweeping stage for a scene which dominates the book's back 4th, a manic tale of the house guest from Hell.
Otherwise, it is an extended meditation from a man who has found his bliss. It can offer wisdom, but ill else for all those others still searching for theirs.
I listened to a narration by Tom Perkins
h1914's review against another edition
3.0
"In a paradise you don't preach or teach. You practice the perfect life—or you relapse."
pizzamcpin3ppl3's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
blueyorkie's review against another edition
5.0
After Greece, Miller's years in the wilderness of Big Sur.
Henry Miller's story has been a pendant, and an "application" of several ideas sketched out before the war in "The Colossus of Maroussi".
Settled rudimentarily in 1940, on his return From Greece, on the wild coast of Big Sur in California, a narrow strip of barren and magnificent land lodged between cliffs and mountains, clearly away from "civilization", he leads a life there. Simple, austere, often challenging, all exceptional in certain aspects of neighbours' company. The life's story, of its hardness and joys, of the visits of friends, strangers and unwelcome, for the better and the worse, between difficulties of raising children and the complex pleasures of the watercolour artist, constitutes in itself a "lesson". He sprinkled with apparent more theoretical digressions, which find their beautiful coherence over these 400 pages.
This book resonates for a long time in the heart and the reader's mind.
"Who originally lived here? Maybe Wren. The Indians came late. Very late.
Although young, geologically speaking, this land looks like an older man. The ocean's depths have arisen with strange shapes and unique and captivating contours. As if the Titans of the Abyss had worked for aeons to shape and mould the earth. Thousands of years ago, the great birds of the planet were frightened by the sudden appearances of these shapes.
There are no ruins or relics for an account. No story that we can evoke. The face of what has always been. Nature smiles at herself in the mirror of eternity.
Far away, the seals are warming on the rocks, wriggling like giant brown worms. And, dominating the roar of the waves on the breakers, you can hear their hoarse barks for miles."
Henry Miller's story has been a pendant, and an "application" of several ideas sketched out before the war in "The Colossus of Maroussi".
Settled rudimentarily in 1940, on his return From Greece, on the wild coast of Big Sur in California, a narrow strip of barren and magnificent land lodged between cliffs and mountains, clearly away from "civilization", he leads a life there. Simple, austere, often challenging, all exceptional in certain aspects of neighbours' company. The life's story, of its hardness and joys, of the visits of friends, strangers and unwelcome, for the better and the worse, between difficulties of raising children and the complex pleasures of the watercolour artist, constitutes in itself a "lesson". He sprinkled with apparent more theoretical digressions, which find their beautiful coherence over these 400 pages.
This book resonates for a long time in the heart and the reader's mind.
"Who originally lived here? Maybe Wren. The Indians came late. Very late.
Although young, geologically speaking, this land looks like an older man. The ocean's depths have arisen with strange shapes and unique and captivating contours. As if the Titans of the Abyss had worked for aeons to shape and mould the earth. Thousands of years ago, the great birds of the planet were frightened by the sudden appearances of these shapes.
There are no ruins or relics for an account. No story that we can evoke. The face of what has always been. Nature smiles at herself in the mirror of eternity.
Far away, the seals are warming on the rocks, wriggling like giant brown worms. And, dominating the roar of the waves on the breakers, you can hear their hoarse barks for miles."
decadent_and_depraved's review against another edition
5.0
Wow! And this book was written by the same man with whom I fell in love with for his raving mad poetry in the Tropics? Bizarre, yet wholeheartedly welcome! Frankly, this is a simple feels good book, the type you pick up and carry off with you on a vacation. It radiates warmth and reminds of childhood. Miller really had it, didn't he, huh?