431. The Razor's Edge

The Razor's Edge
William Somerset Maugham
1944
Around 315 pages

I was kind of disappointed with Cakes and Ale given the enormous expectations I put on Maugham after Of Human Bondage. But we are right back on track with this novel. We've had a really good run lately, 1944 ruled! Okay, too far, I'll pull it back.

Larry Darrell is an American pilot suffering from PTSD after his experiences in World War I. He is betrothed to Isabel Bradley, but jeopardizes the engagement when he announces he plans to live off his inheritance instead of getting a job as a stockbroker. As in the case with any Maugham novel, there is a rich variety of side characters. For some reason, I found myself really connecting with Elliot, Isabel's eccentric and snobbish uncle.  He's an American expat whose frank self-awareness of his own desperation for approval was equal parts hilarious and tragic.

This is the last Maugham book, which is a sincere bummer. Why is everybody leaving me? Here's the official ranking, which I already kind of spoiled:

1. Of Human Bondage

2. The Razor's Edge
3. Cakes and Ale

RATING: *****

Interesting Facts:

Adapted in 1984 with Bill Murray.

The title comes from a translation of a verse in the Katha Upanishad, paraphrased as: "The sharp edge of a razor is difficult to pass over; thus the wise say the path to Salvation is hard."

UP NEXT: Transit by Anna Seghers

430. Ficciones

Ficciones
Jorge Luis Borges

1944

Around 175 pages

I had read this before in an undergrad class, where you are forced to dissect beloved stories until they are nothing more than bloody entrails and a hollow corpse. However, in this case, I was able to sustain my enjoyment through several term papers. That's the magic of Borges!

This is another collection of short stories, which only bothers me when I hate the author. You can tell that Borges loves telling stories and is a huge reader. All of the stories share the common motif of a labyrinth, with the most unforgettable story being The Garden of the Forked Paths. I've thought about that climax for years (how often can you say that?).

I might be wrong, but I believe this is the first Argentinian novel on the List. Always nice to hear from a non Western country which makes up 95% of this List. Borges is a beautiful writer, it's obvious that the man is a poet.

RATING: *****

Interesting Facts:

One of Le Monde's 100 Books of the Century.

Dedicated to writer Esther Zemborain de Torres Duggan, a friend and collaborator of Borges'.

UP NEXT: The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham

429. Dangling Man

Dangling Man
Saul Bellow
1944
Around 190 pages

I don't really like Saul Bellow, but of course, the List isn't just going to politely leave it at that. This is the first of 7 Bellow novels on this blog. 7 is indeed a magical number, and maybe my opinion will be transfigured by the end of this.

Joseph writes in his diary about his family and friends while waiting to be drafted in Chicago. It certainly captures the mood of the moment, when everybody was a bunch of danglers.

I appreciate Bellow's brevity and he nailed the confusion of the setting. Not really a fresh premise at this point, but exceptional as a first novel.

RATING: ***--

Interesting Facts:

The television show The Crown has an episode titled, "The Dangling Man" in reference to this work.

UP NEXT: Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges

428. The Little Prince

The Little Prince
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
1943
Around 100 pages

Well, well, well. The Powers That Be have condescended to add a children's book to the proceedings. The Mighty Ones only do this when a book is so undeniably iconic that you simply have to mention it. Although with that reasoning in mind, some other books have been unforgivably excluded (The Water-Babies over Narnia? Seriously?).

We start with a discussion about how grown ups are unable to perceive certain things. I love stories that begin this way, implying that there is a magic around us if you aren't too much of a muggle to see it. Our narrator is a pilot who crashes in the Sahara desert and meets the Lil Prince. The Prince is visiting Earth after leaving his home planet/asteroid. The Prince recounts his trips to other planets, where he meets a wide variety of insufferable grown ups. 

I don't know if it is possible to not be charmed by this story. Like the best children's stories, it is rich with metaphor. It takes me all the way back to the beginning of the blog with Aesop's Fables. I love a book that is respectful of its audience, especially when the audience are kids. Nothing was dumbed down, but when simplicity and directness is the goal, it can yield quality timeless results.

An excellent story, and probably the best entry we've had for awhile.

RATING: *****

Interesting Facts:

An estimated 140 million copies have been sold worldwide, making it one of the best-selling and most translated books ever published.

Before France used the euro as currency, Saint-Exupéry and drawings from The Little Prince were on the 50-franc banknote

Since 2020, June 29 is International Little Prince Day. This date was chosen to commemorate Saint-Exupéry's birthday.

Translated into over 505 different languages.

UP NEXT: Dangling Man by Saul Bellow

427. Caught

Caught
Henry Green
1943
Around 206 pages

"It brings everyone together, there's that much to a war." That's a pretty banging quote, but it also demonstrates Henry Green's somewhat jerky writing style. He really should not have six entries on the List, even if he is underread now. 

Richard Roe volunteers to serve on the London Auxiliary Fire Service, which is hella awkward, because his chief is the brother of a woman who once kidnapped Roe's young son.

Like I said, I don't think Green's writing style necessarily flows, but this still had a fresh premise. I wish he had leaned into the horror element more, but I guess what was going on at the time was so terrifying that dramatization wasn't needed.

RATING: ***--

Interesting Facts:

Green was always more popular among fellow authors than with the general public; none of his books sold more than 10,000 copies.

UP NEXT: The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery

426. The Glass Bead Game

The Glass Bead Game
Herman Hesse
1943
Around 580 pages

Herman Hesse, you son of a gun. I thought we had seen the last of you. Also, I completely forgot he existed. Then we have an unexpected novel that I think had a huge influence on a future Iain Banks novel I loved. So this is a pretty good send off.

Castalia is an entirely male community, which is usually an unspoken parameter in place from male authors, but this time we are speaking it. The story takes place in the twenty-third century, where Castalia serves as a remote place where intellectuals can flourish. Joseph Knecht has been raised in Castalia and is obsessed with mastering the Glass Bead Game. Knecht begins to question his loyalty to Castalia. But his story's completion isn't the end of the novel.

The rules of the Glass Bead Game are never explained, but we are made to understand playing the game requires years of study of mathematics, music, the arts - pretty much all the subjects that the rich have kept to themselves over the years. Hesse is clearly being critical of the elite who hide from the world and do nothing as evil takes over.

So a unique novel that seemed to have a definite influence over Asimov and Banks. 

Official Ranking:

1. Rosshalde

2. The Glass Bead Game
3. The Steppenwolf

4. Siddhartha

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

In 1946, Hesse won the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Published in Switzerland after it was rejected for publication in Germany due to Hesse's anti-Fascist views.

UP NEXT: Caught by Henry Green

425. Embers

Embers
Sandor Marai
1942
Around 215 pages

I dated a guy named Sandor, and it's difficult not to hold this information against Mr. Marai. In a dramatic twist, Sandor was revealed to work for the Trump campaign. Still recovering from the ick there. Anyway, this Sandy is much more preferable than Pittsburgh Sandor.

An old General waits in a secluded castle to see his friend whom nobody has seen in over 40 years. The action takes place over the course of a single night. The two are connected by the haunting memory of the General's dead wife.

The setting of this novel almost felt like a fairy tale, and there's a dreamlike quality to the entire thing. It was a quick and easy read, and an interesting glimpse into Hungary, which is not a country we see on the List a lot.

RATING: ***--

Interesting Facts:

In 2006, Embers was adapted into a stage play starring Jeremy Irons.

UP NEXT: The Glass Bead Game by Herman Hesse

424. Go Down, Moses

Go Down, Moses
William Faulkner
1942
Around 385 pages

Are you tired of hearing me complain about William Faulkner? Me too, which is why I am thrilled to announce that this is the last Faulkner on the List. Usually I do a ranking, but I hated them all the same. That's not true, I hated The Sound and the Fury just a little bit more.

This isn't even really a novel, it's a collection of short stories that Faulkner considered later to be a novel. Whatever you say, Willy, let's just try to get through this. We start with an absolutely horrific story where two men gamble and bet over women and slaves. I don't really want to get into the plots of the rest of these. They are historically true to the South, and very upsetting in their racism.

Praise Farore, we are finally done with this guy. His subject matter is very disturbing to me, and I detest his writing style. Also, I have resentments against him that have to do with my English undergrad degree. Good riddance to bad luggage.

RATING: *----

Interesting Facts:

Faulkner was awarded the 1949 Nobel Prize in Literature for "his powerful and artistically unique contribution to the modern American novel."

UP NEXT: Embers by Sandor Marai

423. The Outsider

The Outsider
Albert Camus
1942
Around 160 pages

I had read this before, but hadn't put together that this was published in Nazi Occupation France. I guess with gams like mine, you don't get the brains too. The Occupation authorities allowed it, as they didn't feel there was anything offensive in it. So this has the Nazi stamp of approval.

Writers sure do like writing about sociopaths murdering people lately. Is there something they are trying to tell us? This time our killer is Meursault, who begins the novel by not crying at his mother's funeral. From there, he only becomes more unfeeling, which ultimately culminates in violence. Part Two deals with the aftermath and his imprisonment.

So this was enjoyable, even if I don't find violent emotionally numb males quite as fascinating as men in the 1940s did. I definitely enjoyed the second half more, which was more mediative and contained interesting religious discourse. 

Albert Camus has never been a favorite of mine, but maybe our belligerent sexual tension will find some release through this List.

RATING: ***--

Interesting Facts:

The Stranger's first edition consisted of only 4,400 copies, which was so few that it could not be a best-seller.

Referenced in passing in Camus' later novel, The Plague.

UP NEXT: Go Down, Moses by William Faulkner. Noooooo. No.

422. Conversations in Sicily

Conversations in Sicily
Elio Vittorini
1941
Around 205 pages

It is really impressive that Elio Vittorini was able to get away with a novel like this in Fascist Italy. It is veiled in metaphor and I guess the Italian government had a lot on its plate at the time. But I am still surprised it was published.

Silvestro Ferrauto is a Sicilian working as a typesetter in Milan. He receives a letter from his father, saying his father intends to abandon his mother. He decides to go home and has conversations with Sicilians along the way, and they seem to be a pushy lot.

The fact that this story is told in such a dreamlike way is probably how he was able to get away with his criticism of the exploitation of the Italian people. It felt more like a series of vignettes than a coherent story, but I appreciated it for what it was.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

Adapted to a film in 1998.

U.S. edition contained a foreword by Ernest Hemingway.

UP NEXT: The Outsider by Albert Camus

421. The Poor Mouth

The Poor Mouth
Flann O'Brien

1941

Around 115 pages

Once again, the Irish are depending on us to have a detailed understanding of their culture to grasp what's going on in the plot. Or, you know, they are just writing stories for Irish people and are wishing I would butt out. Sorry Irish people, my butt goes where the List tells me to go.

This novel was actually written in the Irish language, and I obviously read the English version. Apparently the story is a parody of typical Irish autobiographies that were frequently assigned as required reading for generations of young Irish folks. I guess you had to be there. The story is set in a remote area of Ireland where everybody is experiencing extreme poverty and maintaining the Irish culture is paramount.

This is a short one to get through, but pretty challenging for a non native reader to understand. O'Brien once said, "I declare to God if I hear that name Joyce one more time I will surely froth at the gob," which makes me like him more.

RATING: **---

Interesting Facts:

Published under the pseudonym "Myles na gCopaleen." That rolls off the tongue.

Adapted into a play in 1967, but was pulled after only three days.

UP NEXT: Conversations in Sicily by Elio Vittorini

420. The Living and the Dead

The Living and the Dead
Patrick White
1941
Around 385 pages

420, let's go! I don't believe I've ever read an Australian novel, so I was excited to dive into this work, especially given the historical context. However, it's set in London so I still don't know what the hell was going in Australia during World War II.

We begin the novel at Victoria Station in London, where a brother and a sister, Elyot and Eden Standish, are saying goodbye to each other. We then go all the way back to when Catherine Standish married their father Willy. Willy doesn't last long and none of Standishes seem to be capable of sustaining a happy relationship.

The looming threat of World War II is really starting to make me anxious, which means the writing is very effective. All these characters are just adrift and lost, and I'm empathize with their dread and despair.

Still, I didn't love the style and this wasn't the most memorable story. Hopefully we will get more Australian literature in the future.

RATING: ***--

Interesting Facts:

Patrick White won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1973.

UP NEXT: The Poor Mouth by Flann O'Brien

419. Hangover Square

Hangover Square

Patrick Hamilton
1941
Around 335 pages

Oh good, another story about an alcoholic man taking his rage out on women. Can't get enough of these.

George Bone is an alcoholic living in London in the days before Britain declared war on Germany. He has a crush on a failed actress, Netta, who uses him for money and alcohol with her friends. Hamilton does everything he can to make Netta repulsive to the reader, she even says she is sexually attracted to Hitler (but she admits Mussolini is a total grenade). George decides he needs to kill Netta for the way she has treated him.

Well, it's certainly a timeless theme. But I didn't like it. It felt like the entire novel was set up so the audience would be rooting for George to commit this violence. Whereas a novel like Native Son does the opposite.

And besides that, I wasn't too impressed by the writing.

RATING: **---

Interesting Facts:

The title of the book is a pun on the name Hanover Square, an area of London that was known for its bars.

Adapted as a film in 1945, where the setting was changed to Edwardian London.

UP NEXT: The Living and the Dead by Patrick White. Back to back Paddy's.

418. Between the Acts

Between the Acts
Virginia Woolf

1941
Around 225 pages

We've finally done with Virginia Woolf, which is very sad considering her ending. And it's hard not to view this through the eyes of her demise, since this was published in the months following her suicide. Not sure how I feel about that.

The story takes place in a town in England, where an annual pageant is being held. This is shortly before World War II, but the show must go on. One of our leading characters is Giles, which pleases me to no end as a Buffy fan. Giles' wife Isa is attracted to a local farmer Rupert Haines (more Buffy!). Miss La Trobe 

is the spinster hellbent on making sure the pageant goes perfectly.

Much of this novel is written in verse, and I was never a fan of super lyrical Woolf. But if you accept it for what it is, it flows. 

Now for the official Virginia Woolf ranking:

1. Mrs. Dalloway
2. Night and Day

3. The Voyage Out

4. Orlando

5. To the Lighthouse
6. Between the Acts

7. The Years
8. Jacob's Room

9. The Waves

RIP.

RATING: ***--

Interesting Facts:

The Woolfs' London homes had been destroyed in The Blitz in September and October. 

Woolf fell into a depression before her suicide on 28 March 1941, and the novel was published posthumously later that year.

UP NEXT: Hangover Square by Patrick Hamilton

417. The Hamlet

The Hamlet
William Faulkner
1940
Around 410 pages

No, not that Hamlet. This is THE Hamlet. As in, another Faulkner, another 400+ pages of tedious prose. Let's get this over with.

This novel felt vaguely familiar when I read it, but I realized it's because William Faulkner took from his previous stories to write this, and I had already had the displeasure of reading "Barn Burning." I guess he went to the Raymond Chandler school of writing fiction, where you just slap a novel together with your previous short stories. It helps if you can only write one type of story. 

This is the story of the Snopes family, who live near the powerful Varner family. It's a pretty twisted bunch, including a mentally handicapped son who tries to fuck a cow. I hate this. Eula Varner also exists solely to be an object of male desire, which is truly a curse with this group. I don't like his style, his comedy falls flat, and he can't write women.

Some authors you just don't vibe with, and it is gets redundant to repeatedly knock them down. Of course, every once in awhile, they surprise you. But Faulkner hasn't surprised me yet.

RATING: **---

Interesting Facts: 

The movie The Long, Hot Summer, starring Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, is very loosely based on stories by Faulkner, primarily The Hamlet. 

Part of the Snopes Trilogy.

UP NEXT: Between the Acts by Virginia Woolf. Our last Woolf!

416. Farewell My Lovely

Farewell My Lovely
Raymond Chandler
1940
Around 360 pages

I always have fun with this genre of novel, and something tells me this is going to be one of the few novels of this era that doesn't concern World War II, so we should enjoy it. On the other hand, 360 pages for a story this convoluted is pushing it.

Phillip Marlowe is investigating a missing person's case in a nightclub when Moose Malloy barges in. With a name like Moose, this character never had a shot at a normal life. He is looking for his ex girlfriend Velma, and ends up killing the black owner of the club and escaping. The police aren't overly concerned about following up on the murder of a black man, because the world is a nightmare. Marlowe cares enough to follow up on the case, so you can guarantee somebody's going to get hit in the head with a blackjack.

Raymond Chandler takes things just a tad farther than your Dashiell Hammetts, for example. There's more of an edge and graver social commentary. He really puts Phillip through the ringer with this one. 

I think we have reached the end of an era here. I don't see another hard-boiled detective story on the horizon. I'll miss these novels, they have a dark levity that always served as a welcome reprieve from some of the doorstoppers on this List.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

Chandler worked on the book from June to December 1939, before destroying the entire manuscript and starting over. He finished the novel in the spring of 1940. Been there my friend.

As he did with Big Sleep, Chandler came up with this book by combining his previous short stories.

UP NEXT: The Hamlet by William Faulkner

415. For Whom the Bell Tolls

For Whom the Bells Tolls
Ernest Hemingway
1940
Around 475 pages

I love a good Hemingway novel, even though it's the literary equivalent of downing a scotch and smoking a cigar, both of which cause me intense vomiting. It's a tight race between this novel and A Farewell to Arms for my favorite Hemingway.

Robert Jordan is an American living in Spain, and fights as a mercenary against Francisco Franco's fascist forces. He is ordered by a Soviet Union general to travel behind enemy lines and destroy a bridge with dynamite. Jordan meets other guerilla fighters, including Maria, a Spanish woman who has been deeply traumatized and brutalized by the war.

Hemingway thinks we are all well-versed in the ins and outs of the Spanish Civil War, which I don't actually know much about. I feel like the only time it was mentioned in my education was in the context of ex pats going abroad to fight voluntarily. Oh, the privilege. 

Despite this, Hemingway is such a good storyteller that is was very easy to follow. We are officially in World War II, ladies and gentlemen. Hold onto your butts.

RATING: *****

Interesting Facts:

In 1940, For Whom the Bell Tolls was declared non-mailable by the U.S. Post Office.

In 1941, the Pulitzer Prize Board and committee unanimously recommended the novel be given the Pulitzer Prize. But Nicholas Murray Butler, the president of Columbia University and unofficial head of the Pulitzer board at that time, found the novel offensive and persuaded the board to reverse its determination so no Pulitzer was given for the category of novel that year. Dick.

The ban of this book in Spain was only lifted in 1968.

UP NEXT: Farewell My Lovely by Raymond Chandler. I think once was enough for this guy.

414. The Power and the Glory

The Power and the Glory
Graham Greene
1940
Around 225 pages

I love me some Graham Greene, even though I do think he is overrepresented on this List. We still haven't hit peak Greene, and I wouldn't say this was a must read unless you are a fellow GG head. I still haven't landed on a fandom name by the way.

Authors sure enjoy having unnamed first characters. I guess it's a way of knocking down the walls between the reader and our protagonist. Or maybe these characters are all demons and saying their name out loud would cause their heads to explode. In any case, our unnamed main character is an alcoholic priest living in Mexico, during a time where Catholicism and alcohol were illegal. 

Like Tomas Garrido Canabal, I believe that the Catholic Church is evil and that women should have the right to vote. Obviously, I don't sanction any violence. But as far as tyrannical regimes go, this one had its perks. Graham Greene wrote about his experiences of witnessing religious persecution in Mexico, writing "That, I think, was the day I began to hate the Mexicans" and at another point wrote about his "growing depression, almost pathological hatred...for Mexico." Strangely, these sentiments aren't really present in the novel, and I was surprised to read that he felt this way. Well, it's not the first time I've been gobsmacked by an author's real opinions (why Jo, why?).

As a writer he is still finding his way, but because it's Greene, we can expect better in the future.

RATING: ***--

Interesting Facts:

In 2005, it was chosen by TIME magazine as one of the hundred best English-language novels since 1923.

In 1983, Greene said that he first started to become a Christian in Tabasco, where the fidelity of the peasants "assumed such proportions that I couldn't help being profoundly moved."

The title is refers to the doxology often recited at the end of the Lord's Prayer: "For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever and ever, amen." 

UP NEXT: For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway

413. The Tartar Steppe

The Tartar Steppe
Dino Buzzati
1940
Around 200 pages

We haven't had an Italian novel in a spell, and I think we should check in on those guys considering the time period. This is one of those books where I enjoyed the premise more than the execution. But still an unusual novel that clearly had a large influence.

Drogo spends his life as a soldier in a remote outpost overlooking a Tartar desert, waiting for the rumored horde of barbarians to attack. I'm glad I read this in a post Game of Thrones world, so I could picture Jason Mamoa in the leading role, which increased my enjoyment of this story tenfold.

I thought this was a nice twist on a rather tired (but accurate) story of the disillusionment of a soldier hungering for glory. Instead of seeing violence and misery, he spends most of the novel waiting. And if you spend your whole life waiting for an attack, you're going to waste it. And still be fucked when the barbarians finally arrive. 

So a good novel, the pacing is slow but it's obviously intentional. I'll have to read the Cavafy poem now.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

The novel was heavily influenced by the 1904 poem "Waiting for the Barbarians" by Constantine Cavafy.

Ranked 29th on Le Monde's 100 Books of the Century list.

UP NEXT: The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene

412. Native Son

Native Son
Richard Wright
1940
Around 505 pages

I'm really divided about this novel, but the fact that I can't stop thinking about it means it earned five stars. 

20-year-old Bigger Thomas lives in one of the poorest areas of Chicago. He is resentful of his family for being powerless to alleviate their suffering, so he's a major dick to everybody. He's hired by a white man, Mr. Dalton and his blind wife who are well-meaning white people who definitely would have bragged about voting for Obama. Bigger's story ends in violence, which seems inevitable in his case.

I understand the criticism of this novel. Bigger is the embodiment of a violent angry black man. And it's a story that seems like it is aimed at teaching white people a lesson, rather than a novel with an intended black audience. I don't think we should put too much pressure on Bigger to represent anything other than himself. He's a product of his environment, and in the process becomes an irredeemable monster. We really feel all the pain and fear that leads Bigger to his decisions.

It's difficult to portray how decentralized racism can be. The shortcut is just to have ignorant characters use racist language, but the situation is obviously much more complex than that. Wright did an amazing job showing how a million indignities and acts of dehumanization can lead to such brutal acts.

Also, welcome to the 1940s!

RATING: *****

Interesting Facts:

James Baldwin wrote, "No American Negro exists who does not have his private Bigger Thomas living in his skull."

Sold 250,000 hardcover copies within three weeks of its publication.

The edition I read included a scene where Bigger and his friend pleasure themselves in a movie house, which apparently was left out of earlier editions. Glad I didn't miss out on that...

UP NEXT: The Tartar Steppe by Dino Buzzati

411. Finnegan's Wake

Finnegan's Wake
James Joyce
1939
Around 630 pages

Well, the dreaded day has arrived, where we have to discuss this...novel? I think a more accurate term would be word prison. Joyce said he could justify every line in the book. What bullshit. Where's the self-loathing? I never read a book more up its own ass.

Here's a sample sentence: The fall (bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonnerronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthurnuk!) of a once wallstrait oldparr is retaled early in bed and later on life down through all christian minstrelsy.

It's hard to believe this word prison can make you feel like Ulysses was readable. I'm planning on banging my head against the keyboard if we have to read anymore Joyce. The results will be the spiritual successor to this self-indulgent ledger of nonsense.

RATING: *----

Interesting Facts:

Written over the course of 17 years.

Joyce invented a unique polyglot-language or idioglossia solely for the purpose of this work.

Nabokov, who actually liked Ulysses, described Finnegan's Wake as "nothing but a formless and dull mass of phony folklore, a cold pudding of a book, a persistent snore in the next room and only the infrequent snatches of heavenly intonations redeem it from utter insipidity." Yas, queen.

UP NEXT: Native Son by Richard Wright

410. At Swim-Two-Birds

At Swim-Two-Birds
Flann O'Brien
1939
Around 225 pages

I don't want to say I dislike all Irish authors, but I don't think I've ever read an Irish novel I've enjoyed. If you want, you can dive into my archives, prove me wrong, and rub it in my pasty face. 

Our frame story is the life of an Irish student whose uncle is a clerk in the Guinness Brewery in Dublin, which is about as Irish as it gets. This unnamed student is writing three stories that end up intertwining.

This is an example of metafiction, which has never been my cup of tea. I know very little about Irish folklore, so I missed a great deal of these references, and O'Brien wasn't overly concerned with holding the reader's hand through the process.

To the country of Ireland, it's not you, it's me. Actually, it's these insufferable white guys.

RATING: **---

Interesting Facts:

The novel was included in Time magazine's list of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005.

In 1940, the publishing house of Longman's London premises were destroyed during a bombing raid and almost all the unsold copies were incinerated.

James Joyce loved this, which is enough condemnation for me.

UP NEXT: Finnegan's Wake by James Joyce. Gag.

409. Tropic of Capricorn

Tropic of Capricorn
Henry Miller
1939
Around 370 pages

Well, I hated Tropic of Cancer, so I wasn't expecting much from this particular literary venture. Henry Miller is trying his damnedest to freak us out. But I remain unfreaked.

Who the hell knows what happened in this novel. The story jumps around in time and I guess are scattered recollections from his sexual past. Usually, I appreciate good serving of a hot gossip, but I didn't really care to read about what went on in Miller's bedroom.

So we finally got this one over with and now, it's clear skies- damn, I just remembered Finnegan's Wake is coming up. Modernism is the worst.

RATING: *----

Interesting Facts:

Banned in the United States until a DOJ ruling in 1961.

Dedicated to his second wife June.

UP NEXT: At Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O'Brien