by Henry Miller
First published 1994
Henry Miller walks the streets of Montparnasse in 1930, broke and unknown. He has fled America, leaving behind a crumbling marriage and a career that brought him nothing but misery. Now he throws himself into the underbelly of Paris with complete abandon. He moves among prostitutes and pimps, struggling artists and fellow expatriate writers who survive on little more than passion and hope. Miller embraces this world of sexual freedom and artistic rebellion, finding in its chaos something his previous life never offered. The city becomes his teacher, its pleasures and degradations equally welcome. He discovers that poverty mixed with liberty creates its own intoxication. Through encounters both tender and raw, Miller transforms his exile into a celebration of human desire unleashed from convention's grip.
Genres: literary-fiction, american-fiction, 20th-century, adult-fiction
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, found-family
Setting: Montparnasse, Paris
Period: 1930s
Paperback · Prelude Audio Books
Content warnings: explicit-sexual-content