Always Merry and Bright: The Life of Henry Miller by Jay Martin (review)

244 Western American Literature is not whodunit, but why they done it, and why they are so anxious to find out what it was they done. Aiding Sughrue in his search are Trahearne, an alcoholic author, Trahearne’s past and present wives, Betty Sue’s mother, and a marvelous beer-drinking bulldog named Fireball Roberts, all of whom (with the possible exception of Fireball) have different reasons for discov­ ering what has happened to Betty Sue. The revelation is in the best tradi­ tion of the novel of suspense — perfectly appropriate within the logic of the story, yet applying a new dimension of meaning to the “why” of the adventures. Crumley’s is a first-rate story, written with delicacy and taste. It con­ cerns itself hardly at all with sex and violence for their own sakes, a point which is all the more remarkable in a novel depending for much of its plot upon the nuances of behavior within the porno film industry. The nar­ rator Sughrue, on one level just another “tough guy” detective, is from a more profound perspective an implausible Everyman: not one who, like Parson Weem’s doubtless exemplary but unbelievable Washington, cannot tell a lie, Sughrue descends from a line of heroes with an integrity remini­ scent of Beowulf’s— he has not sworn many oaths falsely. Finally, one should mention Fireball, the kind of dog that people who love dogs love. He too is an unpromising bastard: he owns no kinship with Old Dog Tray or Old Shep. His unacknowledged father is Lion, who brings down the great bear in Faulkner’s story; he traces his ancestry to Argos, who alone in Ithaca recognizes his master Odysseus, thumps his tail — and dies. JAMES K. FOLSOM, The University of Colorado, Boulder Always Merry and Bright: The Life of Henry Miller. By Jay Martin. (Santa Barbara: Capra Press, 1978. 560 pages, $15.00.) This pioneer biography is the most convincing and thorough book written about Henry Miller to date, containing the materials necessary to understanding the phenomenon that is Henry Miller. As a writer Miller will be longest remembered for his vibrant Tropic of Cancer, first published 1934, in France. No one dared publish it in the U. S. until 1961. Then U. S. publication sparked off a series of obscen­ ity trials that made Miller “the most litigated author in history,” and did more to bring about literary freedom than any other single book. But this is a small part of the story of Henry Miller, egoist and anarchist, self-confessed cadger and scrounger, a generous, open-handed, garrulous, impulsive man who married his fifth wife when he was 75. Reviews 245 Jay Martin’s biography is always absorbing, if at times depressing. There are some really funny moments, the best coming when Martin tells of the penalties Henry began paying for fame, while reaping few of the benefits (like money and security). By the 1950s the Millers were living in Big Sur, and Henry was sufficiently well-known to be troubled by a suc­ cession of pilgrims making their way up the hill. He scarcely had time to write, for the volume of fan mail and uninvited visitors. “Some made it quite clear that they considered themselves his guests: When would lunch be ready? How about a little drink before lunch just to wet the whistle while they read a new story to him? . . . Several young men and women, who had read of the way Henry had sponged off a variety of people, proposed that he should take them in for a year or two. Some hinted that a stipend of a hundred or so a month would suit them fine. . . .” (p. 445) At last we get an account of June Smith Mansfield, Miller’s second wife, “Mona” in the “autobiographical romances.” Miller’s many references to her whetted our appetites, but never satisfied them. The biography adds substantially to our picture of June/Mona, the destructive, scheming fabu­ list, for whom the boundaries between reality and invention were non­ existent, a chameleon who metamorphosed into one brilliant form after another to enmesh Miller and her many other lovers. Academic criticism will find...