The Last Jews in Baghdad: Remembering a Lost Homeland

Appendix B. A Selection of Book Reviews from the Iraq Times

Appendix B A selection of book reviews from the iraq times The Wandering American by Henry Miller (6 august 1947) Henry Miller is an American rebel. He sees in modern American society nothing but ugliness, stupidityand unhappiness. He dreads in it what he describes as a ‘‘world suited for monomaniacs obsessed with the idea of progress—butafalseprogress,aprogresswhichstinks.Aworldcluttered with useless objects, which men and women, in order to be exploited and degraded, are taught to regard as useful.’’ Born in New York in 1891 of American parents of German descent, Millerentered the City College of NewYork when hewas 18, only to leave twomonthslater‘‘disgustedwiththeatmosphereoftheplaceandthestupidity of the curriculum.’’ The partial list of positions he held between his leaving the college and 1920 includes: dishwasher, bus boy, messenger boy, grave-digger, bill sticker, book salesman, typist, adding machine operator, librarian, statistician, charity worker, mechanic, insurance collector , garbage collector, usher, secretary to an evangelist, dock hand, street car conductor, gymnasium instructor, milk driver, ticket chopper, etc. In 1924 he decided to be a writer, had nothing accepted by publishers and ‘‘eventually was obliged to beg in the streets.’’ He left to Paris in 1931 and had his first book published by the Obelisk Press there. It was Tropic of Cancer which he followed, five years later, by Tropic of Capricorn . After the defeat of France he was obliged to return to the States, where he has recently published a book about America which he called The Air-conditioned Nightmare. Concluding his Biographical Note, from which the above facts were taken, Miller says: ‘‘I want to be read by less andlesspeople;Ihavenointerestinthelifeofthemasses,norintheintentions of the existing governments of theworld. I hope and believe that the whole civilised world will bewiped out in the next hundred years or so. I believe that man can exist, and in an infinitely better, larger way, without civilisation.’’ a selection of book reviews from the iraq times 219 Here is a passage from The Air-conditioned Nightmare: This frenzied activity which has us all, rich and poor, weak and powerful ,initsgrip—whereisitleadingus?Therearetwothingsinlifewhich itseemstomeallmenwantandveryfeweverget(becausebothofthem belong to the domain of the spiritual) and theyare health and freedom. The druggist, the doctor, the surgeon are all powerless to give health; money, power, security, authority do not give freedom. Education can never provide wisdom, nor churches religion, nor wealth happiness, nor security peace.What is the meaning of our activity then? To what end? Miller’sbookswerecriticizedforbeingchaotic,obscureandludicrous. They are banned, both in the United States and in the British Empire, on the grounds that theyare obscene, indecent and degrading.The reading public must have found these books too aggressive and bitter to fit with its refined tastes and high aesthetic standards. Miller, of course, has many faults. He can be repetitive, exaggerating, over-enthusiastic, outspoken and even, sometimes, sentimental. It mayalso be said that he puts too much stress on certain unpleasant aspects of life. One thing, at any rate, must go to his credit; he is an honest man and a genuine artist. Like D. H. Lawrence, Miller is passionately interested in the things he writes about; he works as if under an inner compulsion, like a saint, a prophet. The following passage is quoted from his novel The Rosy Crucifixion: The prisoner is not the one who has committed a crime, but the one who clings to his crime and lives it overand over.We are all potentially free. We can stop thinking of what we have failed to do and do whatever lies within our power.What these powers that are in us may be no one had trulydared to imagine.That theyare infinitewewill realise the day we admit to ourselves that imagination is everything. Imagination is the voice of daring. If there is anything God-like about God it is that He has dared to imagine everything. ToaccuseMillerofwritingchaotic,obscureandobscenebookswould notbesounjustifiableasabsurd.Heseeslife,asitisbeinglivedbymillions and millions of people at present—and here quite a number of people may agree with him—as chaotic, ugly and humanly degrading; and to holdhimresponsibleforwhatheseeswouldbelikegettingangrywiththe mirror for failing to produce a lovely image or blaming a child for inherit- 220 the last jews in baghdad ing his parents’ mental deficiencies. It is part of the tragedy of our age— of man in fact—that people are determined not to learn the truth about themselves and their lives. They are scared at it and they may as well be so.The moment they begin to see the misery...