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The Sexus of Henry Miller" (1965) Summary and Analysis
Despite Henry Miller's protestations to the contrary in letters to fellow novelist Lawrence Durrell, Vidal finds Miller's Sexus nothing but a 600-page ego trip and self-congratulatory work focused on the central character who happens to be named Henry Miller. Vidal snarls, "Only a total egotist could have written a book which has no subject other than Henry Miller in all his sweet monotony."
The other characters in Sexus play "straight man" to Miller, the sexual athlete, Miller the literary genius and life force, and Miller and the cosmos. In the novel, Henry Miller sometimes and oddly morphs into Val; he conducts an extramarital affair with a dance hall girl named Mara, whose name also morphs halfway through into Mona. Sexus, because of Miller's "hydraulic approach to sex and dogged use of four-letter words," was banned from publication in the United States for 24 years—a virtual assurance of future sales.
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This section contains 421 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) |
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