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petitshoo's review against another edition
4.0
I kinda wanted to go 3 1/2 on this one. It's a very well written book and hooks you in with a protagonist that is a sad person who lead a quite extraordinary life. What was really interesting were the political, religions and racial themes it touched on in past decades (20s, 30s, 50s) that resonate with what society is like now.
sdibartola's review against another edition
4.0
Probably like others, I became aware of Merle Miller’s 1961 novel, “A Gay and Melancholy Sound” through librarian Nancy Pearl and her Book Lust Rediscovery series. In the novel, Joshua Bland (born in 1921) narrates the story of his life in flashbacks that move back and forth in time as he dictates events into a tape recorder. Josh is either a former child prodigy with an IQ of 186 (when tested as a child) or perhaps merely highly gifted with an IQ of 132 (when tested at Fort Dix on entering military service during World War II). Regardless, Mr. Bland is a highly cynical man who is critical of most people he encounters in his career as a successful theatrical producer. Beyond merely being cynical, he has a pathologic inability to give or receive love. What’s worse, he has an inexplicable need to hurt those who try to love him. Whereas Joshua’s superior intellect may have predisposed him to cynicism, his inability to love seems to have had its roots in his childhood relationship with his mother and stepfather Pavan. His mother is primarily interested in capitalizing on Josh’s intellect for her own vanity and financial gain. She is exasperated when he fails to win the $10,000 first prize in the Harvey Jordan O’Conner “cranium derby,” and shows no sympathy for him when he is hospitalized for nervous exhaustion. Her next step is to market him as a contestant on a quiz show called “Can You Top Them?” when Josh is 11 years old. Josh is befriended by his philosophy teacher, Orion Bernstein, while a student in the experimental school at Pegasus College in 1936. In a betrayal of this friendship, Josh forges a letter of recommendation for a scholarship in London.
While relating his story, Mr. Bland refers to people in four households where he witnessed love: neighbor and childhood friend Hughie Larrabee, two lesbian teachers (Miss Parkinson and Miss Auerbach) who take a personal interest in his early education, his Aunt Mettabel and Uncle Dick who own a farm where Josh works one summer, and Professor Hollis Lindsay and his wife Kathyrn in London. Josh experiences some happiness while picking strawberries, grooming horses and keeping the books on Uncle Dick’s farm one summer. However he is despondent when Uncle Dick and Aunt Mettabel explain that they cannot simply “adopt” him, and he must return to his mother and stepfather at the end of the summer. In two other situations, Josh’s inability to accept love results in tragic consequences. He argues with his friend Hughie (accusing him of jealously) just before leaving for London to study and the two never see each other again after Hughie enlists and is shot down over the Pacific near Gaudalcanal. While Josh is in England, Orion Bernstein volunteers for the Spanish civil war and is killed. Hollis and Kathyrn Lindsay take Josh into their own home and show him the kind of love they felt for their own son Ronnie, who died many years ago. They leave for a trip to Greece and Josh is to follow, but he receives word that his mother and Pavan have died in a house fire and he prepares to leave for home. On his way out, he smashes a treasured Chinese statue of Kathyrn’s and takes Ronnie’s picture and treasured butterfly collection (inspiration for the cover photo on the Book Lust Rediscoveries edition of the novel). On the boat back to New York, Josh rips the photo to pieces and scatters it on the ocean and then he dumps the butterfly collection overboard.
Josh’s first wife Letty comes from poverty and is determined to become successful and wealthy whatever it takes. Their relationship ends in divorce and Letty makes sure that Josh and their daughter Taffy remain estranged until the end. Letty submits Josh’s fictionalized war letters to a publisher, and Josh achieves fame as the author of “Prodigy as Private.” He becomes a celebrity soldier and is paraded around the country on tours promoting the sale of army bonds until his drunkenness at one event results in his being reassigned to combat, an outcome he secretly wanted. Josh’s war experience with his friend Nick Contino is reminiscent of what happens to Yossarian with the B25 turret gunner Snowden in “Catch 22” (also published in 1961). Nick is decapitated by a German 88 mm anti-tank artillery gun at the siege of Bastogne in Belgium while Josh is running from enemy fire.
Josh’s final attempt to find love with Charley, a woman who is moved by his anti-war speech at a party, as expected, also doesn’t work out. On leaving, she says: “I’m sorry you never had a childhood. I’m sorry for all the hurts you felt and feel. I’m sorry that when somebody reaches out to caress you, you hit them before they can. I thought maybe I could help you, but I can’t. Nobody ever will.” Overall, the book is bleak, and it is hard to sympathize with Bland’s cynicism and self-hatred. It is well-written and kept my interest for the full 570 pages, but I wouldn’t count it among my “top 10” favorite novels.
While relating his story, Mr. Bland refers to people in four households where he witnessed love: neighbor and childhood friend Hughie Larrabee, two lesbian teachers (Miss Parkinson and Miss Auerbach) who take a personal interest in his early education, his Aunt Mettabel and Uncle Dick who own a farm where Josh works one summer, and Professor Hollis Lindsay and his wife Kathyrn in London. Josh experiences some happiness while picking strawberries, grooming horses and keeping the books on Uncle Dick’s farm one summer. However he is despondent when Uncle Dick and Aunt Mettabel explain that they cannot simply “adopt” him, and he must return to his mother and stepfather at the end of the summer. In two other situations, Josh’s inability to accept love results in tragic consequences. He argues with his friend Hughie (accusing him of jealously) just before leaving for London to study and the two never see each other again after Hughie enlists and is shot down over the Pacific near Gaudalcanal. While Josh is in England, Orion Bernstein volunteers for the Spanish civil war and is killed. Hollis and Kathyrn Lindsay take Josh into their own home and show him the kind of love they felt for their own son Ronnie, who died many years ago. They leave for a trip to Greece and Josh is to follow, but he receives word that his mother and Pavan have died in a house fire and he prepares to leave for home. On his way out, he smashes a treasured Chinese statue of Kathyrn’s and takes Ronnie’s picture and treasured butterfly collection (inspiration for the cover photo on the Book Lust Rediscoveries edition of the novel). On the boat back to New York, Josh rips the photo to pieces and scatters it on the ocean and then he dumps the butterfly collection overboard.
Josh’s first wife Letty comes from poverty and is determined to become successful and wealthy whatever it takes. Their relationship ends in divorce and Letty makes sure that Josh and their daughter Taffy remain estranged until the end. Letty submits Josh’s fictionalized war letters to a publisher, and Josh achieves fame as the author of “Prodigy as Private.” He becomes a celebrity soldier and is paraded around the country on tours promoting the sale of army bonds until his drunkenness at one event results in his being reassigned to combat, an outcome he secretly wanted. Josh’s war experience with his friend Nick Contino is reminiscent of what happens to Yossarian with the B25 turret gunner Snowden in “Catch 22” (also published in 1961). Nick is decapitated by a German 88 mm anti-tank artillery gun at the siege of Bastogne in Belgium while Josh is running from enemy fire.
Josh’s final attempt to find love with Charley, a woman who is moved by his anti-war speech at a party, as expected, also doesn’t work out. On leaving, she says: “I’m sorry you never had a childhood. I’m sorry for all the hurts you felt and feel. I’m sorry that when somebody reaches out to caress you, you hit them before they can. I thought maybe I could help you, but I can’t. Nobody ever will.” Overall, the book is bleak, and it is hard to sympathize with Bland’s cynicism and self-hatred. It is well-written and kept my interest for the full 570 pages, but I wouldn’t count it among my “top 10” favorite novels.
maddyjo's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
thecommonswings's review against another edition
5.0
Devastating. At first it feels like a slightly less whimsical version of things like the Robertson Davies’ Bildungsromans but it soon takes the reader into far darker, stranger and agonisingly melancholy territory.
I’ve read a couple of reviews that described the narrator as unlikeable and the narrative as constantly flitting about, and to that I ask how readers would suggest a book about a man who intensely hates himself and is beginning the slow process of killing himself would read? It’s agonisingly forensic in how detailed Miller goes into Bland’s narrative. It genuinely feels like a confessional - flailing in anger and frustration and loss like it does - and the more whimsical moments are definitely deliberately there because Bland is kidding himself about his past. Miller’s not that dumb a writer. And by the time the narrative begins to unravel into strange paranoid and almost surreal vignettes, which interestingly don’t fit into the narrative Bland is trying to control, the effect absolutely wipes you out
It’s also a book about PTSD, about nature versus nurture and - as Pearl wisely points out in her introduction- about self loathing covering someone’s real personality. Miller’s homosexuality doesn’t fully chime in with Bland’s narrative, but there are moments where the implications are very direct. It’s possibly the most awful evocation of self hatred within depression I have ever read. Every word feels true and particularly feels like Miller must have suffered every word, every sentence of this. I was horrified in a way I can truly say I haven’t been by a book in living memory. It’s a brutal masterpiece but I’m not entirely sure a book I could or can ever revisit
It’s astonishing. It’s horrible. It’s horrifying. It’s gut wrenching. It deserves to be a modern classic
I’ve read a couple of reviews that described the narrator as unlikeable and the narrative as constantly flitting about, and to that I ask how readers would suggest a book about a man who intensely hates himself and is beginning the slow process of killing himself would read? It’s agonisingly forensic in how detailed Miller goes into Bland’s narrative. It genuinely feels like a confessional - flailing in anger and frustration and loss like it does - and the more whimsical moments are definitely deliberately there because Bland is kidding himself about his past. Miller’s not that dumb a writer. And by the time the narrative begins to unravel into strange paranoid and almost surreal vignettes, which interestingly don’t fit into the narrative Bland is trying to control, the effect absolutely wipes you out
It’s also a book about PTSD, about nature versus nurture and - as Pearl wisely points out in her introduction- about self loathing covering someone’s real personality. Miller’s homosexuality doesn’t fully chime in with Bland’s narrative, but there are moments where the implications are very direct. It’s possibly the most awful evocation of self hatred within depression I have ever read. Every word feels true and particularly feels like Miller must have suffered every word, every sentence of this. I was horrified in a way I can truly say I haven’t been by a book in living memory. It’s a brutal masterpiece but I’m not entirely sure a book I could or can ever revisit
It’s astonishing. It’s horrible. It’s horrifying. It’s gut wrenching. It deserves to be a modern classic
jessferg's review against another edition
3.0
I don't know what to think of this one. I mean, I liked it but I can't say I've read a true "memoir as novel" before (or maybe it was novel as memoir?) A rather depressing read - very self-depreciating and bitter - but still compelling, particularly for the socio-historical aspect (is that a thing?). The ending is quite dramatic - as the life-long literate narrator deteriorates, it becomes difficult to decipher what is going on and it becomes increasingly disturbing. Not necessarily a fitting end but one that is understandable. Def a book that deserves to be read and discussed.
terril's review
1.0
Hated. Made it all the way to the end, which I should not have done, and I still don't know what happened. Argh.
kathleenitpdx's review
4.0
A man,who has led an interesting and tragic life, and has decided to end it, dictates a record of his experiences.
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