Crome Yellow

Crome Yellow
by Aldous Huxley
read: 2017
Guardian 1000 Novels

Crome Yellow, like Lucky Jim or A Dance to the Music of Time, satirizes early 20th Century British upper class society in ways that I don't really understand. I did identify with protagonist Denis, who possessed the lack of self-awareness, pretense to greatness, and cluelessness with women that I did in my early 20's. Uh, 'cause I've gotten wiser since then. Or something.

Tropic of Cancer

Tropic of Cancer
by Henry Miller
read: 2016
Time 100 Novels, Modern Library #50, Guardian 1000 Novels

Why did people think On the Road was so revolutionary? Miller was doing almost the same thing 30 years earlier. I have to be in the right mood for this sort of thing, and I wasn't here, but I did enjoy some passages:

Every time I pass the concierge's window and catch the full icy impact of her glance I have an insane desire to throttle all the birds in creation. At the bottom of every frozen heart there is a drop or two of love - just enough to feed the birds.