Quiet Days in Clichy

This being my first Henry Miller book and not having been briefed of the pornographic content of his writing, I was, to say the least blindsided but holy hell, what a ride!

A few weeks ago, after seeing the NYE countdown in Champs-Élysées, I decided to stay out, against the suggestion of my sister to get myself home and get to sleep (if you know me enough you know that makes me just squirm). I had no clue where where to go next, and because we had walked a fair distance northward, in the midst of an excited crowd flowing through the streets and traffic, I decided to walk eastward, alone. I ended up in the Bd de Clichy where I spent 4 hours in the chilly winter, the events of which belong to something that is not a book review.

Obviously that place made quite an impression on me and when I found out Henry Miller had written a book about it I immediately ordered a copy from Amazon.

The first part begins with a kind of prose that I found too simple to like. Quickly I realized this dude‘s perspective on women and sexuality and I am just disgusted. But I kept reading... and I think for the same reason this writer is a celebrated one, in spite of the obvious. He writes of life as it has happened, and with that, cures us of the ignorance of the ends to which people, so uninhibited, can reach, and specifically the hedonistic parts of the edge of society.

I would have rated this lower because of how degrading he writes of women and the disgusting display of machismo power, but then again this book isn‘t written to make right of what is wrong, it isn't meant to teach, or make a point even.

I enjoyed this book because of the many reactions it got from me. I was titillated, I was horrified, I burst out laughing, here and there.

And about mid-way up until the end, in the second section where he waxes poetic about two women who resembled one another, he started using a form of prose that I could like.


I would not recommend this book to anyone and will probably be too embarrassed to admit I actually enjoyed this, but in the end I am judging this for the piece of literature that it is and not the morals behind.