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كابوس مكيف الهواء
إبّان عودتي إلى محترفي في منتصف الليل،كنتٌ غالباً ما أقفُ عند الطاولة وأسجّل في ذلك السجّل السماوي بنوداَ صغيرة لا حصر لها تؤلّف دفتر حسابات الكاتب: أحلاماَ،خُطط هجوم ودفاع،ذكريات،عناوين كتب صمَّمتُ على قراءتها،
أسماء وعناوين دائنين مُحتلين،تعبيرات آسرة،مُحررّين يجب حثّهم على الإسراع في العمل،ساحات القتال،نُصُب تذكارية، مُعتزلات رهبانيّة،وما إلى ذلك.
وأتذكر بوضوح الإثارة التي انتابتني وأنأ أُدون كلمات مثل موبايل،نهر سواني، نافاخوس، الصحراء المرسومة، النحل القاتل، الكرسي الكهربائي.
أسماء وعناوين دائنين مُحتلين،تعبيرات آسرة،مُحررّين يجب حثّهم على الإسراع في العمل،ساحات القتال،نُصُب تذكارية، مُعتزلات رهبانيّة،وما إلى ذلك.
وأتذكر بوضوح الإثارة التي انتابتني وأنأ أُدون كلمات مثل موبايل،نهر سواني، نافاخوس، الصحراء المرسومة، النحل القاتل، الكرسي الكهربائي.
351 pages, Unknown Binding
First published January 1, 1945
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About the author
Henry Miller
979 books5,153 followersHenry Valentine Miller was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist. He broke with existing literary forms and developed a new type of semi-autobiographical novel that blended character study, social criticism, philosophical reflection, stream of consciousness, explicit language, sex, surrealist free association, and mysticism. His most characteristic works of this kind are Tropic of Cancer, Black Spring, Tropic of Capricorn, and the trilogy The Rosy Crucifixion, which are based on his experiences in New York City and Paris (all of which were banned in the United States until 1961). He also wrote travel memoirs and literary criticism, and painted watercolors.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 243 reviews
May 2, 2010
Reading the prologue to this book by Henry Miller astonishes me. Written 70 years ago, it could have been written today. Some excerpts:
It is a world suited for monomaniacs obsessed with the idea of progress - but a false progress, a progress which stinks. It is a world cluttered with useless objects which men and women, in order to be exploited and degraded, are taught to regard as useful ... Whatever does not lend itself to being bought or sold ... is debarred
We are accustomed to think of ourselves as an emancipated people; we say that we are democratic, liberty-loving, free of prejudices and hatred. This is the melting pot, the seat of a great human experiment. Beautiful words, full of noble, idealistic sentiment. Actually we are a vulgar, pushing mob whose passions are easily mobilized by demagogues, newspaper men, religious quacks, agitators and such like. To call this a society of free peoples is blasphemous. What have we to offer the world beside the superabundant loot which we recklessly plunder from the earth under the maniacal delusion that this insane activity represents progress and enlightenment?
It is a world suited for monomaniacs obsessed with the idea of progress - but a false progress, a progress which stinks. It is a world cluttered with useless objects which men and women, in order to be exploited and degraded, are taught to regard as useful ... Whatever does not lend itself to being bought or sold ... is debarred
We are accustomed to think of ourselves as an emancipated people; we say that we are democratic, liberty-loving, free of prejudices and hatred. This is the melting pot, the seat of a great human experiment. Beautiful words, full of noble, idealistic sentiment. Actually we are a vulgar, pushing mob whose passions are easily mobilized by demagogues, newspaper men, religious quacks, agitators and such like. To call this a society of free peoples is blasphemous. What have we to offer the world beside the superabundant loot which we recklessly plunder from the earth under the maniacal delusion that this insane activity represents progress and enlightenment?
November 19, 2017
هنري ميللر قد يكون أول الكارهين لأمريكا يعري وجهها من تبرجها المبالغ فيه يعري أطروحة أمريكا الحلم الجنة، بالنسبة لميللر أمريكا ليست سوى وليد مشوه من الأم الجميلة أوروبا استطاعت أن تصنع لنفسها صرحا قائم على اسس واهية و لكي تحمي هذه الأسس تبتدع ما تشاء من حروب و تقنيات في جوهرها فارغ.بالنسبة لميللر لا شيء حقيقي في أمريكا كل شيء سطحي عديم النفع بلا روح حتى جمال الجغرافيا يسقط أمام تاريخ الدماء التي بنت أمريكا عليها قوتها ،ميللر يجرد أمريكا من كذبة الحضارة فهي بالنسبة له تبيع فقط الوهم" قد ينتهي بنا الأمر أن نصير على اربع نبربر كالسعادين" يقول ميللر .
كابوس مكيف الهواء توقفت كثيرا لأفهم المقصود من هذا العنوان و لم اجد الا تفسير واحد و قد أكون مخطئة ربما قصد ميللر أن حتى في الأشياء التي تسعدنا و تخفف معاناتنا شيء يخيف و يفقدنا روحنا و ماهيتنا ,أظن ميللر بعد زيارته لأوروبا العجوز فهم أن الحضارة لا تأتي بالتقنية بل بالتاريخ و الخبرة فمقارناته الدائمة بين باريس و أمريكا تظهر مدى تفاهة الفن الأمريكي الذي يعتبر مجرد باحث عن المال الى جانب الفن الأوروبي و مع ذلك يرحل ميللر في أمريكا باحثا عن أمل يعيد له ايمانه ببلده الأصلي فيجد بعض الرجال المغمورين و ينفض عنهم التراب و يعرف بهم العالم و ربما يكون هذا الأمر ما يجعل من هذا الكتاب تكريم لرجال يرفضون بقعة الضوء التي تعشقها أمريكا.
كابوس مكيف الهواء توقفت كثيرا لأفهم المقصود من هذا العنوان و لم اجد الا تفسير واحد و قد أكون مخطئة ربما قصد ميللر أن حتى في الأشياء التي تسعدنا و تخفف معاناتنا شيء يخيف و يفقدنا روحنا و ماهيتنا ,أظن ميللر بعد زيارته لأوروبا العجوز فهم أن الحضارة لا تأتي بالتقنية بل بالتاريخ و الخبرة فمقارناته الدائمة بين باريس و أمريكا تظهر مدى تفاهة الفن الأمريكي الذي يعتبر مجرد باحث عن المال الى جانب الفن الأوروبي و مع ذلك يرحل ميللر في أمريكا باحثا عن أمل يعيد له ايمانه ببلده الأصلي فيجد بعض الرجال المغمورين و ينفض عنهم التراب و يعرف بهم العالم و ربما يكون هذا الأمر ما يجعل من هذا الكتاب تكريم لرجال يرفضون بقعة الضوء التي تعشقها أمريكا.
February 26, 2013
It's a shame that Miller didn't make it to the millennium (though he died at 88 years of age; 1891-1980), although I would imagine he lived long enough to see how right his bleak vision of our self-destructive world come to fruition - for lack of a better word. No man ever will be ahead of his time quite like Miller was, and despite his being ridiculed at the time for his vulgar outlook on the world, he has since become a legend in his own right. I can't begin to convey how enamored I am by his works, especially 'The Air-Conditioned Nightmare'... Everyone knows him of course for his Obelisk Trilogy (Tropic of Cancer/Capricorn and Black Spring), but I firmly believe he is at the top of his game in this book. It's a memoir of everything that's wrong with humanity... It's so majestically written I can't even conjure up the words to explain it. I can't recommend a better read for a realist. Do yourself a favor and read Miller; especially this volume of immaculate confusion and wayward perfection.
July 20, 2023
I have always had an interest in travel books that are about times and places past. There is something about being able to see a vanished world through vanished eyes. I was astonished to learn that Henry Miller wrote a travel book about a road trip he took across America in the early 1940s. Henry Miller!, oh my god, his Tropic of Cancer is one of those books no one ever forgets; notwithstanding its position as one of the great novels of the twentieth century, it is the filthiest thing I have ever read. And yet, and yet, the sex is secondary to his masterful storytelling about what it was like to be down and out in Paris in the twenties and thirties. With just a couple of sentences Miller could vividly set a scene or describe a person so that readers feels like they are right there.
So, I went online to search the used bookstores, and found a copy of The Air-Conditioned Nightmare. It’s not at all like his earlier works. He seems to have cleaned up his act a bit to appeal to a larger reading public – and of course, to avoid being banned again. Still, it’s not your usual travel book.
The first two chapters are Miller at his angry stream of consciousness best. He had just returned to the States from Europe, and he loathed what he saw. He hated virtually everything and everyone, piling up invectives one atop the other. Although he didn’t use these words, it came across as “You Americans, you’re uncultured, unenlightened and miserable; ugly, stupid, ignorant, spineless, lazy, and racist; mindless drones in a corrupt and soul-crushing political and economic system – if you had souls that is, but you don’t, since you’re not French. And oh yeah, your kids are probably ugly too.” He also needed money for his trip, but shuddered at the thought of actually getting – oh horrors – a job.
The third chapter is the best in the book. It starts with Miller’s take on the American prison system, and segues into a sympathetic conversation with a man just released and trying to get his life back together. The man is soon forgotten, however, and the rest of the chapter is an extended riff on suffering as an intrinsic component of human existence. One unforgettable passage is
That’s good stuff, although two paragraphs later he goes off the rails into even wilder free association, with “devils who laugh like antelopes,” and “hammerclaviers fitted with cloying geraniums.” Antelopes? Geraniums? Time to dial back on the drugs, Henry.
After that the rest of the book is interesting, but not particularly unique. The travel parts serve as a framing device, and the chapters are mostly devoted to character studies of people he meets. There is even a charming bit about him taking two small children to the zoo in Albuquerque. Toward the end of the book it gets back to being a road trip, and the section from the Grand Canyon to Los Angeles in an unreliable car is quite good. The final pages talk about Hollywood, which, not surprisingly, he finds utterly vapid and soulless. Kind of like Hollywood today.
This is not your standard travel book, but if you like Miller, it is worth your time.
So, I went online to search the used bookstores, and found a copy of The Air-Conditioned Nightmare. It’s not at all like his earlier works. He seems to have cleaned up his act a bit to appeal to a larger reading public – and of course, to avoid being banned again. Still, it’s not your usual travel book.
The first two chapters are Miller at his angry stream of consciousness best. He had just returned to the States from Europe, and he loathed what he saw. He hated virtually everything and everyone, piling up invectives one atop the other. Although he didn’t use these words, it came across as “You Americans, you’re uncultured, unenlightened and miserable; ugly, stupid, ignorant, spineless, lazy, and racist; mindless drones in a corrupt and soul-crushing political and economic system – if you had souls that is, but you don’t, since you’re not French. And oh yeah, your kids are probably ugly too.” He also needed money for his trip, but shuddered at the thought of actually getting – oh horrors – a job.
The third chapter is the best in the book. It starts with Miller’s take on the American prison system, and segues into a sympathetic conversation with a man just released and trying to get his life back together. The man is soon forgotten, however, and the rest of the chapter is an extended riff on suffering as an intrinsic component of human existence. One unforgettable passage is
You crash a gate made of arms and legs only to get a butt blow behind the ear. You pick up and run on bloody, sawed-off stumps, only to fall into an endless ravine. You sit in the very center of emptiness, whimpering inaudibly, and the stars blink at you. You fall into a coma, and just when you think you’ve found your way back to the womb they come after you with pick and shovel, with acetylene torches. Even if you found the place of death they would find a way to blow you out of it. You know time in all its curves and infidelities. You have lived longer than it takes to grow all the countless separate parts of a thousand new universes. You have watched them grow and fall apart again. And you are still intact, like a piece of music which goes on being played forever. The instruments wear out, and the players too, but the notes are eternal, and you are made of nothing but invisible notes which even the faintest zephyr can shake a tune out of.
That’s good stuff, although two paragraphs later he goes off the rails into even wilder free association, with “devils who laugh like antelopes,” and “hammerclaviers fitted with cloying geraniums.” Antelopes? Geraniums? Time to dial back on the drugs, Henry.
After that the rest of the book is interesting, but not particularly unique. The travel parts serve as a framing device, and the chapters are mostly devoted to character studies of people he meets. There is even a charming bit about him taking two small children to the zoo in Albuquerque. Toward the end of the book it gets back to being a road trip, and the section from the Grand Canyon to Los Angeles in an unreliable car is quite good. The final pages talk about Hollywood, which, not surprisingly, he finds utterly vapid and soulless. Kind of like Hollywood today.
This is not your standard travel book, but if you like Miller, it is worth your time.
October 2, 2013
The problem with this book wasn't that it was strictly bad. On the contrary, a reader gets a glimpse of some of Miller's talent as a writer, with pages upon pages of rhapsodic prose tumbling word upon word until the effect is less like a text and more like standing under a waterfall of imagery and ideas.
Unfortunately that doesn't constitute the bulk of the book. What Miller offers is a trip around a country with which he is disgusted and alienated. It's unfair to either blame him for the cliché that this sort of work would turn into in subsequent decades or to suggest that many of his criticisms are inaccurate. But the vast majority of the text is comprised of sweeping generalizations about vast swaths of the country (about which he seems to know little); effete, snooty, and quasi-aristocratic attitudes about the people he encounters - the sort of ex-pat elitism that he attempts poorly to counterbalance with some patronizing support for a scattered handful of salt-of-the-earth types; and blatant, unabashed racism - again, that he attempts to cast as some sort of admiration for African-Americans, but is unmistakable in the acidic tinge that it carries.
One is left wondering why, if America is the insatiable cultural vortex that Miller makes it out to be, he returned shortly after this was written and lived in California the remainder of his life.
Ultimately, while it bears some marks of the brilliance that carried his best work, this is a somewhat forgettable footnote in an otherwise remarkable body of work.
Unfortunately that doesn't constitute the bulk of the book. What Miller offers is a trip around a country with which he is disgusted and alienated. It's unfair to either blame him for the cliché that this sort of work would turn into in subsequent decades or to suggest that many of his criticisms are inaccurate. But the vast majority of the text is comprised of sweeping generalizations about vast swaths of the country (about which he seems to know little); effete, snooty, and quasi-aristocratic attitudes about the people he encounters - the sort of ex-pat elitism that he attempts poorly to counterbalance with some patronizing support for a scattered handful of salt-of-the-earth types; and blatant, unabashed racism - again, that he attempts to cast as some sort of admiration for African-Americans, but is unmistakable in the acidic tinge that it carries.
One is left wondering why, if America is the insatiable cultural vortex that Miller makes it out to be, he returned shortly after this was written and lived in California the remainder of his life.
Ultimately, while it bears some marks of the brilliance that carried his best work, this is a somewhat forgettable footnote in an otherwise remarkable body of work.
January 6, 2022
Henry Miller, on a road trip. The road trip through America.
abandoned
April 14, 2010Update: I'm abandoning this one some 50 pages in. He is far too annoying and the racism is really grating on me. If you have read it, and know that it improves, please tell me.
In this book so far, Miller goes from being a more-or-less cool sex-drugs-and-rock&roll guy (as in Sexus/Nexus/Plexus and the Tropics) to being an archetypal Grumpy Old Man. The train is ugly! I don't like the skyline! That station is horrific! That seagull shows the utter decline of the American nation! I can't stand looking at these bland office blocks a second longer!
In this book so far, Miller goes from being a more-or-less cool sex-drugs-and-rock&roll guy (as in Sexus/Nexus/Plexus and the Tropics) to being an archetypal Grumpy Old Man. The train is ugly! I don't like the skyline! That station is horrific! That seagull shows the utter decline of the American nation! I can't stand looking at these bland office blocks a second longer!
May 18, 2025
First of all, Henry Miller's mastery of the English language far exceeds most anyone you are likely to read. He is in that elite class of great writers. Secondly, when you read any of his books, letters, essays and whatnot, you feel is is right there in the room, cafe, or on the street with you, so conversational is he. In this book AIR CONDITIONED NIGHTMARE, he writes about a year on the road in the US, he was contracted to write about by his agent. What he found was a lot of sterile robotic buildings and people. As he said, it was a waste of a year in his life. It is an eye opening book about a land where imagination is difficult to find, sense of adventure minuscule, where the people are essentially lemmings, glomming along, while at the same time filled with a sense of arrogance because they get the sense of themselves not by intelligence, and insight, but by the fact that their country is big, robust, has a powerful military and is financially strong, which in the end has little or no meaning where the human condition, and their interaction with others, their land, is concerned. He found a country with no sense of culture, a country defining itself by how much money a person makes, which disgusted him. After having read this book, and having been back and forth in the US, the book rang so true I have not traveled it since. It is just a bunch of sameness from one end to the other. Naturally, some places are worse than others.
June 22, 2007
I read this book in a road lit and film class, everyone called it propaganda except me...i fought for this book all semester...this is so refreshing and current...although he is a little long winded--but he is Henry Miller--I am sure he doesn't care
October 25, 2013
Like I did last summer, Henry Miller traveled across the country beginning in 1939. Unlike me, he fucking hated it. This is not why I didn't like his book - some of the best travel writing is born of hatred and disgust. It was the structure and the tone of the hatred that really irked me.
First, the tone. Much of this book consists of the whiny laments of a starving artist against The Man. Maybe this was groundbreaking in 1945 when the book was published. But in 2013 it just sounded kind of, well, whiny. It was along the lines of: artists are the only authentic people and commercialism is ruining everything and one day the people will rise up and dispose of the tyrants and live in artistic harmony, amen. At the same time, Miller openly describes his frustrating efforts to try and secure a book deal prior to his trip. I guess he wants to have his cake, as well as eat it his cake, or however the saying goes. His generalizations were also obnoxious: all Southern people are distinguished and unique, all Northern people are soul-sucking urban dwellers, all Native Americans are at one with nature and should re-claim America, etc. There were few shades of gray in his depictions of the people of this country.
Second, the structure. The best parts of the book were when Miller took us on his journey, as a typical travelogue does. But most of the book is not like that. It is comprised of essays, and the worst are the ones entirely removed from the narrative of the trip that seem to function as filler, and that filler is mostly of the whiny starving artist kind. There were a few wonderful moments - the description of his time in a small town in the Southwest, the troubles with his car - but these were few and far between.
First, the tone. Much of this book consists of the whiny laments of a starving artist against The Man. Maybe this was groundbreaking in 1945 when the book was published. But in 2013 it just sounded kind of, well, whiny. It was along the lines of: artists are the only authentic people and commercialism is ruining everything and one day the people will rise up and dispose of the tyrants and live in artistic harmony, amen. At the same time, Miller openly describes his frustrating efforts to try and secure a book deal prior to his trip. I guess he wants to have his cake, as well as eat it his cake, or however the saying goes. His generalizations were also obnoxious: all Southern people are distinguished and unique, all Northern people are soul-sucking urban dwellers, all Native Americans are at one with nature and should re-claim America, etc. There were few shades of gray in his depictions of the people of this country.
Second, the structure. The best parts of the book were when Miller took us on his journey, as a typical travelogue does. But most of the book is not like that. It is comprised of essays, and the worst are the ones entirely removed from the narrative of the trip that seem to function as filler, and that filler is mostly of the whiny starving artist kind. There were a few wonderful moments - the description of his time in a small town in the Southwest, the troubles with his car - but these were few and far between.
January 24, 2010
I often didn't agree with what he said, but I always enjoyed how he said it. Quote from page 192: "The duck is plucked, the air is moist, the tide's out and the goat's securely tethered. The wind is from the bay, the oysters are from the muck. Nothing is too exciting to drown the pluck-pluck of the mandolins. The slugs move from slat to slat; their little hearts beat fast, their brains fill with swill. By evening it's all moonlight on the bay. The lions are still affably baffled and whatever snorts, spits, fumes and hisses is properly snaffled."
May 11, 2009
I enjoy the way Miller pieces together bits of prose to create an intertwined journey through not only the landscape of the United States but the culture we have developed throughout this nation. It is at once both amazing and depressing.
I was refreshed to realize that for over 100 years at least people like Henry Miller have been looking for the root cause of what is wrong with us. We have collectively done many great things and are blessed with an amazing land of resources and yet not only do we readily rest on our laurels of luck, we trash the very source of that dumb luck. The Grand Canyon chapter points brilliantly to that.
I thought it interesting as well to discover little has changed since the 1930s. Literally. The story in Chicago could have happened today, as a matter of fact I've lived through it myself. Amazing!
One of my truly favorite works from Henry Miller. I recommend this to anyone interested in culture as seen through the eyes of an expatriate communicated with the color of raw language Miller is so well known for.
I was refreshed to realize that for over 100 years at least people like Henry Miller have been looking for the root cause of what is wrong with us. We have collectively done many great things and are blessed with an amazing land of resources and yet not only do we readily rest on our laurels of luck, we trash the very source of that dumb luck. The Grand Canyon chapter points brilliantly to that.
I thought it interesting as well to discover little has changed since the 1930s. Literally. The story in Chicago could have happened today, as a matter of fact I've lived through it myself. Amazing!
One of my truly favorite works from Henry Miller. I recommend this to anyone interested in culture as seen through the eyes of an expatriate communicated with the color of raw language Miller is so well known for.
November 13, 2020
Hmm, how to rate this book. There are some absolutely great chapters focusing on places he visits as well as some strange characters he meets along the way that are fascinating. Unfortunately, it’s not long before he cannot help but wank on about Paris. We get it, you had a great time. I’ve read around ten books by Miller and half of those are based on his time in Paris. We don’t need to hear more about it. So yeah, I think the main problem is that I feel cheated as it’s half travelogue, half reminiscences of Paris.
Strictly for Miller fans.
Strictly for Miller fans.
October 24, 2021
It isn’t the oceans which cut us off from the world—it’s the American way of looking at things. Nothing comes to fruition here except utilitarian projects. You can ride for thousands of miles and be utterly unaware of the existence of the world of art. You will learn all about beer, condensed milk, rubber goods, canned food, inflated mattresses, etc., but you will never see or hear anything concerning the masterpieces of art.
This is a brilliant two hundred and fifty page rant in the guise of an American travelogue. The level of detail and the word smithing that Miller exhibits here reminds me of other literary giants who penned excellent place centric non-fiction:
George Orwell - Homage to Catalonia
John Steinbeck - Travels with Charley (parts are fictional)
David Foster Wallace - Ticket to the Fair
Tom Wolfe - The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
5 stars. I really loved this curmudgeonly read.
This is a brilliant two hundred and fifty page rant in the guise of an American travelogue. The level of detail and the word smithing that Miller exhibits here reminds me of other literary giants who penned excellent place centric non-fiction:
George Orwell - Homage to Catalonia
John Steinbeck - Travels with Charley (parts are fictional)
David Foster Wallace - Ticket to the Fair
Tom Wolfe - The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
5 stars. I really loved this curmudgeonly read.
April 28, 2011
I've read the many mixed reviews about this book and I must agree with the reviews that reflect how much this book relates to our current times. It's not a book to be lumped with Miller's well known Sexus, Plexus & Nexus series. Instead, the readers should be prepared to see a dark and at certain moments, a downright depressing outlook on our nation. He makes no effort to hide problems that existed when the novel was written and continue to exist today.
This book is worth reading merely for the different perspective that is presented on our nation.
This book is worth reading merely for the different perspective that is presented on our nation.
November 29, 2012
I am just amazed how many Americans have not even heard about this book...but then again, many didn't hear about Depleted Uranium Weapons either.
December 18, 2008
I never considered myself a patriot, until I read this book and felt so fiercely insulted by every trivial insult he flung at all things american. I was fleeing Charleston at the time, and driving through the Smokey Mountains--which were incredible. His arguments seemed extremely petulant ("the parks in america aren't as good as the parks in europe. The stores in america aren't as good as the stores in Europe," etc, etc, etc), and I knew he had no idea what he was talking about when he stopped to make an exception for Charleston, saying it was the only place in America worth going to. I beg to differ.
February 7, 2020
Wonderful to Read. Full of world vision, realism, thoughts, humour (like in all of Miller). Most of all, of personnality. Very appropreate for the still largely Up to date criticism of the north American mentality (which i find, applies well to Canada), and of it's "individualism without individuality (or personnality)". I feel like reading it again.
July 2, 2025
A friend of mine sent me a passage from this book and I thought, oh! He's cooking with gas:
That turned out to be on page 20 and was sadly the book's high point.
Henry Miller travels around America and hates what he finds -- fair, I suppose...except he sets out determined to hate it. He is angry that he has had to leave France. Why did he have to leave France? It's 1939. He's completely indifferent to the Nazis and the horrors they are currently committing; he doesn't like Hitler but he thinks Hitler and Roosevelt are basically one and the same, which, oy. He'd fit right in today, wouldn't he?
This is the attitude with which Miller embarks on his travels:
Bro, that's a skill issue.
He goes on to have some Tumblr-story-type conversations with a few random Americans, but mostly seems disinterested in the people he meets. He's more interested in hanging out with a few select artists, whose work he praises -- but without ever conveying what is wonderful about their art.
By the time I got to the end, where Miller is lamenting how beautiful the South would be if only slavery had been allowed to continue, I was beyond done. But Miller adds a grace note by listing, "for the reader's delectation," descriptions of some of the winners of Guggenheim fellowships for the year he was denied one to write this book. In the context of a better book, this might be boldly cheeky, but in the context of this one, it's merely the whiniest most petty bitch behavior I have ever seen.
Really, Anaïs??
The land of opportunity has become the land of senseless sweat and struggle. The goal of all our striving has long been forgotten. We no longer wish to succor the oppressed and homeless; there is no room in this great, empty land for those who, like our forefathers before us, now seek a place of refuge. . . . Where is the democratic spirit? Where are the leaders?
That turned out to be on page 20 and was sadly the book's high point.
Henry Miller travels around America and hates what he finds -- fair, I suppose...except he sets out determined to hate it. He is angry that he has had to leave France. Why did he have to leave France? It's 1939. He's completely indifferent to the Nazis and the horrors they are currently committing; he doesn't like Hitler but he thinks Hitler and Roosevelt are basically one and the same, which, oy. He'd fit right in today, wouldn't he?
This is the attitude with which Miller embarks on his travels:
I have never found a park in America that filled me with anything but sadness or ennui.
Bro, that's a skill issue.
He goes on to have some Tumblr-story-type conversations with a few random Americans, but mostly seems disinterested in the people he meets. He's more interested in hanging out with a few select artists, whose work he praises -- but without ever conveying what is wonderful about their art.
By the time I got to the end, where Miller is lamenting how beautiful the South would be if only slavery had been allowed to continue, I was beyond done. But Miller adds a grace note by listing, "for the reader's delectation," descriptions of some of the winners of Guggenheim fellowships for the year he was denied one to write this book. In the context of a better book, this might be boldly cheeky, but in the context of this one, it's merely the whiniest most petty bitch behavior I have ever seen.
Really, Anaïs??
December 24, 2024
This is Henry Miller, narrating from the inside of his beautiful buzzing soul, details of his personal disappointment. The US is dying having scarcely lived. He is angry.
As if he was lord of some manor come back after a decade of neglect to find his ancestral home a wasteland. He is storming with complicated personal rage about it. It is hard to see what responsibility he has himself for this outcome. Does he see himself anywhere in it? It seems as though the concept of this book was solid, but he veered so far into a refined idea and no one sought him out to salvage it. He rolls on, to where it can be hard to see where you are in it, until suddenly you are in the middle of a set piece whose characters appear and whose origins will remain obscure.
Mostly what we receive here is his unmitigated bitterness at his struggle as a man in this world without the respect or really the admiration of the powerful and mighty which he so obviously (and somewhat painfully) craves. (To drive home this point, in the afterward he makes a list of those Guggenheim Awardees that stood in front of him and received awards the year he made his application to write this book. It's mostly scientists, economists, and so forth -- lesser creatures than artists is the implication. The point is to urge you to register a written complaint about passing him over for the honor he so obviously deserved above these callow narrow academics. So confident you share his view on the matter he helpfully provides the Guggenheim director's mailing address.)
Miller is a patriarch, a dispatched, discarded and peripatetic one for sure, but he loves us, his errant readers. He is blessed with insight and understanding, and willing to generously share it with us in the form of a series of strenuously expressed warnings. He doesn't want us to be driven to insanity by the falseness of the ever encroaching commercial world which dominates the US and threatens to dumb down "civilization" everywhere. His subject is the creation of empire and it's effect on the Natural Man. We didn't do it right in America. Vive la France! He is longing to be considered prodigal and therefore potentially in receipt of some long withheld fortune to which he so obviously feels entitled. He doesn't actually want to come back and run anything. This is not James Baldwin returning to America from a fruitful career as an artist in Europe out of a sense of personal responsibility for the outcome of the fight he left behind to explore his voice. This is instead the absent father who remembers he had a family and returns to see what's become of it since he left.
There are few women in his book that merit more than a sentence or two. That is irritating. He alludes to great stories he could tell, but doesn't. That is also irritating. I could write an entire review about the racism of this book, but in the end it's like having dinner in the old folks home with your uncle Bob; what do you say to dinosaurs like this? And of course, more pertinently this particular dinosaur is actually dead. His version of racism lives on and doesn't seem to die off. But we knew that and know it better now then ever. What is the best hackneyed phrase here?: He was "a creature of his time"? He 'means well'? Like all white people in America, he fucks all this shit up from top to bottom. It could make the book unreadable for some of you.
His trip across the US is a couch surfing type affair, with him setting up with a series of boon companions (read: drinking buddies) a hateful device which allows him to quote himself liberally from their conversations. He looks often with naked adolescent hatred at America. To him what is marvelous about it is at best is ignored, at worst wrecked or at least (in his telling) spoiled. As, by implication, he was himself.
There are some passages of poignance and clarity about the many hypocrisies and lost opportunities of The American Dream and I got something out of reading it. Despite his lack of rigor, (He seems to say "Details? Why bother! You know what I'm talking about here!" *Wink, nod*) There is a recounting of a dinner party in Hollywood that he stumbled into that is priceless. There are some dark themes about American life that will look extremely accurate from this point in time but so few of them. You still need to read DeTocqueville. He tells you who his artistic heroes are and details his FEELINGS about their greatness. Trust me you've never heard of them and never will. He choses friends first and then finds the light in their work; which in itself is endearing. He probably was a generous, if occasionally domineering, friend.
Miller is a crank, a morsel of his time, the "Man Artist". Muscular, freebooting, charming, and a bit of caustic narcissism thrown in for good measure. But I'm a lifelong fan of his and won't give him totally up for all the doting on him I did in my 20's. A precursor of the Beats, he is better then most of them. He prides himself on being unabridged, idiosyncratic, a bit of a lovable monster.
This book is about him, nothing but him, wandering through a few episodes in this country which he barely fathoms. America is a mirror and what he sees in it finally is mostly Henry.
As if he was lord of some manor come back after a decade of neglect to find his ancestral home a wasteland. He is storming with complicated personal rage about it. It is hard to see what responsibility he has himself for this outcome. Does he see himself anywhere in it? It seems as though the concept of this book was solid, but he veered so far into a refined idea and no one sought him out to salvage it. He rolls on, to where it can be hard to see where you are in it, until suddenly you are in the middle of a set piece whose characters appear and whose origins will remain obscure.
Mostly what we receive here is his unmitigated bitterness at his struggle as a man in this world without the respect or really the admiration of the powerful and mighty which he so obviously (and somewhat painfully) craves. (To drive home this point, in the afterward he makes a list of those Guggenheim Awardees that stood in front of him and received awards the year he made his application to write this book. It's mostly scientists, economists, and so forth -- lesser creatures than artists is the implication. The point is to urge you to register a written complaint about passing him over for the honor he so obviously deserved above these callow narrow academics. So confident you share his view on the matter he helpfully provides the Guggenheim director's mailing address.)
Miller is a patriarch, a dispatched, discarded and peripatetic one for sure, but he loves us, his errant readers. He is blessed with insight and understanding, and willing to generously share it with us in the form of a series of strenuously expressed warnings. He doesn't want us to be driven to insanity by the falseness of the ever encroaching commercial world which dominates the US and threatens to dumb down "civilization" everywhere. His subject is the creation of empire and it's effect on the Natural Man. We didn't do it right in America. Vive la France! He is longing to be considered prodigal and therefore potentially in receipt of some long withheld fortune to which he so obviously feels entitled. He doesn't actually want to come back and run anything. This is not James Baldwin returning to America from a fruitful career as an artist in Europe out of a sense of personal responsibility for the outcome of the fight he left behind to explore his voice. This is instead the absent father who remembers he had a family and returns to see what's become of it since he left.
There are few women in his book that merit more than a sentence or two. That is irritating. He alludes to great stories he could tell, but doesn't. That is also irritating. I could write an entire review about the racism of this book, but in the end it's like having dinner in the old folks home with your uncle Bob; what do you say to dinosaurs like this? And of course, more pertinently this particular dinosaur is actually dead. His version of racism lives on and doesn't seem to die off. But we knew that and know it better now then ever. What is the best hackneyed phrase here?: He was "a creature of his time"? He 'means well'? Like all white people in America, he fucks all this shit up from top to bottom. It could make the book unreadable for some of you.
His trip across the US is a couch surfing type affair, with him setting up with a series of boon companions (read: drinking buddies) a hateful device which allows him to quote himself liberally from their conversations. He looks often with naked adolescent hatred at America. To him what is marvelous about it is at best is ignored, at worst wrecked or at least (in his telling) spoiled. As, by implication, he was himself.
There are some passages of poignance and clarity about the many hypocrisies and lost opportunities of The American Dream and I got something out of reading it. Despite his lack of rigor, (He seems to say "Details? Why bother! You know what I'm talking about here!" *Wink, nod*) There is a recounting of a dinner party in Hollywood that he stumbled into that is priceless. There are some dark themes about American life that will look extremely accurate from this point in time but so few of them. You still need to read DeTocqueville. He tells you who his artistic heroes are and details his FEELINGS about their greatness. Trust me you've never heard of them and never will. He choses friends first and then finds the light in their work; which in itself is endearing. He probably was a generous, if occasionally domineering, friend.
Miller is a crank, a morsel of his time, the "Man Artist". Muscular, freebooting, charming, and a bit of caustic narcissism thrown in for good measure. But I'm a lifelong fan of his and won't give him totally up for all the doting on him I did in my 20's. A precursor of the Beats, he is better then most of them. He prides himself on being unabridged, idiosyncratic, a bit of a lovable monster.
This book is about him, nothing but him, wandering through a few episodes in this country which he barely fathoms. America is a mirror and what he sees in it finally is mostly Henry.
January 12, 2013
Though Henry Miller’s book on Greece, The Colossus of Maroussi, is generally regarded as his greatest achievement, he also wrote a second travel book which should be regarded as a definite classic of the genre.
The Air-Conditioned Nightmare chronicles Miller’s return to America in 1939, hot on the heels of the Greek trip referred to above, and from what he believed would be an open-ended life in France. The journey begins on a note of hope: “I wanted to have a last look at my country and leave it with a good taste in my mouth. I didn’t want to run away from it, as I had originally. I wanted to embrace it, to feel that the old wounds were really healed.” Instead, he finds despair: a nation where giant industries deaden the lives of their workers while polluting the environment, and a population which seeks nothing greater than credit, cheap cars, and vapid mass consumerism. It says a great deal that many of Miller’s scathing critiques are just as relevant today.
And yet the book contains a note of hope. It’s also a celebration of those rare individuals—eccentrics, artists, and creative people of all stripes—whose stubborn resilience represents everything that made the nation great in the first place.
A few years after this trip, Miller finally made peace with the land of his birth. He found his paradise in Big Sur, California, and that is where he lived out the rest of his life.
The Air-Conditioned Nightmare chronicles Miller’s return to America in 1939, hot on the heels of the Greek trip referred to above, and from what he believed would be an open-ended life in France. The journey begins on a note of hope: “I wanted to have a last look at my country and leave it with a good taste in my mouth. I didn’t want to run away from it, as I had originally. I wanted to embrace it, to feel that the old wounds were really healed.” Instead, he finds despair: a nation where giant industries deaden the lives of their workers while polluting the environment, and a population which seeks nothing greater than credit, cheap cars, and vapid mass consumerism. It says a great deal that many of Miller’s scathing critiques are just as relevant today.
And yet the book contains a note of hope. It’s also a celebration of those rare individuals—eccentrics, artists, and creative people of all stripes—whose stubborn resilience represents everything that made the nation great in the first place.
A few years after this trip, Miller finally made peace with the land of his birth. He found his paradise in Big Sur, California, and that is where he lived out the rest of his life.
July 15, 2014
بغض النظر عن أن هنري يتحدث بأسلوب رائع
عن أمريكاه..إلا أن اللغة شدتني وأبهرتني فعلاً.
وحديثه يشملنا جميعاً كبشر حين أهملنا الطبيعة
ودمرنا كل شئ طبيعي في الحياة التي نعيشها.
بحيث نخوض في فوضى حرب ضد انفسنا ووجودنا نفسه.
إنه أسلوب صريح..مباشر
إنه قريب مني..حقيقة إنه الأسلوب أو اللغة التي كنت أتسم بها حححح
في بدايات وعيي بالعالم والحياة.
أسلوب عدواني وعنيف= صريح وما فيه لف ودوران.
فلابد من تسمية الأشياء بمسمياتها
من جديد..
لغة قوية تقودك للهدف والاقوى أن يتقبلها القارئ
بصدر رحب بدون حزازيات أعني حساسيات.
فهاهو القارئ الأمريكي يقرأ عن نفسه بدون أن يعارض الكثير
أو يصدر فتوى بهدر دم الرجل..مثل عادة بعض العشائر أعني قومنا.
فكلما خرج صوت من بيننا يقدم نقدا ذاتيا ارتفعت أصوات نشاز لم تقرأ حتى المكتوب..بمحاكمة ونفي المجرم.
مع أنهم يهللون لكل أجنبي مهما ذلنا بكلمة أو كلمات.
في الكتاب لا مكان لفواصل حشو كلام..
إنها جملة وراء جملة..كلمة قوية تليها كلمة أقوى..
حقيقة تجرها حقيقة أمر.
مر وقت غير قليل لم أعجب فيه حقاً بكتاب مما قرأت..
ولذا مسرورة أني قرأت أخيراً هذا الكابوس
عن أمريكاه..إلا أن اللغة شدتني وأبهرتني فعلاً.
وحديثه يشملنا جميعاً كبشر حين أهملنا الطبيعة
ودمرنا كل شئ طبيعي في الحياة التي نعيشها.
بحيث نخوض في فوضى حرب ضد انفسنا ووجودنا نفسه.
إنه أسلوب صريح..مباشر
إنه قريب مني..حقيقة إنه الأسلوب أو اللغة التي كنت أتسم بها حححح
في بدايات وعيي بالعالم والحياة.
أسلوب عدواني وعنيف= صريح وما فيه لف ودوران.
فلابد من تسمية الأشياء بمسمياتها
من جديد..
لغة قوية تقودك للهدف والاقوى أن يتقبلها القارئ
بصدر رحب بدون حزازيات أعني حساسيات.
فهاهو القارئ الأمريكي يقرأ عن نفسه بدون أن يعارض الكثير
أو يصدر فتوى بهدر دم الرجل..مثل عادة بعض العشائر أعني قومنا.
فكلما خرج صوت من بيننا يقدم نقدا ذاتيا ارتفعت أصوات نشاز لم تقرأ حتى المكتوب..بمحاكمة ونفي المجرم.
مع أنهم يهللون لكل أجنبي مهما ذلنا بكلمة أو كلمات.
في الكتاب لا مكان لفواصل حشو كلام..
إنها جملة وراء جملة..كلمة قوية تليها كلمة أقوى..
حقيقة تجرها حقيقة أمر.
مر وقت غير قليل لم أعجب فيه حقاً بكتاب مما قرأت..
ولذا مسرورة أني قرأت أخيراً هذا الكابوس
March 20, 2014
الهجاء الأكثر راديكالية لأمريكا
May 12, 2015
مجموعة خواطر كتبها الأمريكي هنري ميلر يتحدث فيها عن كراهيته لأمريكا وسياستها وطبيعه مجتمعها ويقارنها بدول اوروبا وخصوصًا بفرنسا، الكتاب ممل بعض الشيء لكثرة سرد نفس النقاط وتكرارها
November 19, 2025
People don't write like this anymore. Henry Miller's biting reaction to 1930s USA, after a long time in Paris, could be written about today. We've built a world of convenience and up until recently, tremendous prosperity. But it isn't a happy world we've built, the economic and political model are linked to consumption and the prosperity to overwork and a soulless modern scientism. Henry Miller's travels across the US is a search for art and beauty as outlets for souls that are desiccated and barren. There is a lot to think about in these pages, these are times of change in the US but none of it seems to be change for the better. But maybe we can commandeer the frustration.
A quick word too about home. Of course Miller loved Europe. He loved Paris and Dublin the same way folks from Paris and Dublin love LA or New York. When you are not from somewhere, when you have no stake in the success or failure of that place, and when you don't speak the language or understand enough of the story of that place to be able to make common cause, you are able to see it from the vantage point of a disinterested observer. And because you cannot either succeed or fail in that place, because you are not from there and will not be judged by the locals, it is safe. I have felt this in Europe too, it is the safety of tourism, the safety of a museum continent that looks only to the past. It is naive. But I get it.
A quick word too about home. Of course Miller loved Europe. He loved Paris and Dublin the same way folks from Paris and Dublin love LA or New York. When you are not from somewhere, when you have no stake in the success or failure of that place, and when you don't speak the language or understand enough of the story of that place to be able to make common cause, you are able to see it from the vantage point of a disinterested observer. And because you cannot either succeed or fail in that place, because you are not from there and will not be judged by the locals, it is safe. I have felt this in Europe too, it is the safety of tourism, the safety of a museum continent that looks only to the past. It is naive. But I get it.
July 4, 2020
Truly fantastic book.
Henry Miller returns home to the USA from Europe at the outbreak of WWII and decides to spend a year traveling around the country and writing about it.
At first I was skeptical, as he had become a true Europhile and had a certain disdain for his country, so much so that I thought the whole book would turn into "Why Europe is superior." Whereas he probably did actually believe that, as soon as he escaped New York City, where he grew up, and breezed through the Rust Belt, which was booming at that point with giant factories making the industrialists rich, and arrived in the South, everything shifted.
His observations of the people, culture, and sense of place on the South were magnificent. I particularly loved "The Shadows," a story about Weeks Hall and his home in New Iberia, Lousiana. I also loved "The Soul of Aenethesia" and "My Dream of Mobile" for their character portrayal of an ex-con at the end of the Depression and for a snapshot of a city in dream form versus reality, respectively.
The great writing does not start and stop in the South, his observations of the Southwest and California are also beautiful and stunning. "Day in the Park," was my favorite from this set, for its portrayal of children living in a motor lodge along Route 66. I love the beautiful description of scenery that matched my own views from many road trips in "From Grand Canyon to Burbank." And finally "Desert Rat," was another amazing portrait of a common man living in the desert, akin to "The Soul of Aenethesia" mentioned above.
Highly recommend this one, and definitely don't skip the introduction, Miller's astute observations of the American psyche post-Depression and pre-WWII are incredible.
Henry Miller returns home to the USA from Europe at the outbreak of WWII and decides to spend a year traveling around the country and writing about it.
At first I was skeptical, as he had become a true Europhile and had a certain disdain for his country, so much so that I thought the whole book would turn into "Why Europe is superior." Whereas he probably did actually believe that, as soon as he escaped New York City, where he grew up, and breezed through the Rust Belt, which was booming at that point with giant factories making the industrialists rich, and arrived in the South, everything shifted.
His observations of the people, culture, and sense of place on the South were magnificent. I particularly loved "The Shadows," a story about Weeks Hall and his home in New Iberia, Lousiana. I also loved "The Soul of Aenethesia" and "My Dream of Mobile" for their character portrayal of an ex-con at the end of the Depression and for a snapshot of a city in dream form versus reality, respectively.
The great writing does not start and stop in the South, his observations of the Southwest and California are also beautiful and stunning. "Day in the Park," was my favorite from this set, for its portrayal of children living in a motor lodge along Route 66. I love the beautiful description of scenery that matched my own views from many road trips in "From Grand Canyon to Burbank." And finally "Desert Rat," was another amazing portrait of a common man living in the desert, akin to "The Soul of Aenethesia" mentioned above.
Highly recommend this one, and definitely don't skip the introduction, Miller's astute observations of the American psyche post-Depression and pre-WWII are incredible.
August 21, 2009
I found this to be a weak interpretation of what should be an epic road trip. There are wonderful moments of truthfulness, but for the most part the tone makes it seem like a stretch for a paycheck. I don’t believe that a man as brazen as Mr. Miller would continue a journey of this sort for such a long amount of time if he really hated it so. Why would he make this trip, come to these conclusions, and then retire in a country that banned his capstone works? He acts like he is making objective observations, but his descriptions American life are so emotive that he makes me feel like a fool for ever doubting him. That’s how I know he’s up to no good! The Tropic series is full of beauty and mystery, but this seems like he was starving in a public library scheming up ways to drum up some cash. As much as I dislike this book, I will admit that he noticed our throw-away culture before most people would have defined the beginning period: I have always heard that it was September of ’45 when everyone came back from the war with money in their pockets. We got the suburbs, and all the throw away convinces that came with them… Perhaps he was trying to write a book as throw-away as the society he found. If this was his intent –this man is a genius!
September 14, 2011
summary: henry miller is a old man, he has aspergers, the park bench is too uncomfortable, they wont let him feed bread to the ducks at the park, theres too many negros at the park, theres too many dog at the park. hendry miller discovers yoga. henry miller eats, prays, loves.
i hate american as much as the next guy but id rather read america-hate from a real authentic french cool guy (baudrillard much??) than a wannabe french bitter expat guy, even if tropic of cancer was good, sorry henry milner. didnt even finish this book, i got like 90 pages in and accidentally tore it in twain out of boredom, RIP
i hate american as much as the next guy but id rather read america-hate from a real authentic french cool guy (baudrillard much??) than a wannabe french bitter expat guy, even if tropic of cancer was good, sorry henry milner. didnt even finish this book, i got like 90 pages in and accidentally tore it in twain out of boredom, RIP
July 15, 2007
Henry Miller's lush prose is gorgeous, but he seems to get distracted about a third of the way through.
Regardless, The Air-Conditioned Nightmare is a great motivation to leave the US, if only I could afford...
Regardless, The Air-Conditioned Nightmare is a great motivation to leave the US, if only I could afford...
February 9, 2016
إذا كنت مستعد أن تفقأ الفقاعة الفكرية والثقافية التي تراها اليوم، فاقرأ هذا الكتاب
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