Friday, March 27, 2020

Arthur Hoyle - "Mavericks, Mystics and Misfits. Americans against the grain"


 
Read from February 17th to March 12th 2020

My rating: 


This review has been published by Across the Margin 


Bricks in the (foundation) wall 
I have known and read the biographer and the essayist Arthur Hoyle for several years now. His debut book, The Unknown Henry Miller A Seeker in Big Sur, impressed me with its thorough research, its ample information, its true passion for the chosen subject. Henry Miller is America’s voice, America’s iconic image, Arthur Hoyle kept reminding us, and he should not to be forgotten by his fellow Americans. 
In his second book, the author continues to look for the essential qualities of the American soul in the life and work of other personalities who refused to conform to the norm, drawing, with the same firm and gifted hand he accustomed us to, the complex portrait of that America rendered unique by its brilliant seekers, from one restless Henry Miller to other Mavericks, Mystics and Misfits. As he explains in the Introduction:
These individuals have been chosen because their life stories, though often at variance with the direction of the mainstream society around them, exhibit certain endur­ing qualities of the American character that persist despite the changing circumstances of time and place.