Read
from February 17th to March 12th 2020
My
rating:
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.
