In "Tropic of Capricorn," Henry Miller conveys his passions and his play with truth, with the ephemeral and with opposition to decay, in the United States, going back to his childhood, adolescence, early youth, the years before he left America. Frenzied yet sensible, determined to suck the marrow out of life, to chew the pulp of the soul, to live a life ultimately full, without conditions and limits, Miller engages in the dialectic between "dig within" and "seize the day." He lives each moment as if it were unique - and it is, after all. He lives singing loudly the song that deceives time. He lives discovering poetry in dark alleys of despair, but also in bright avenues of joyful knowledge. He lives possessed by an unceasing longing to see, to listen, to ponder, and to write. He lets his flesh become a sensitive membrane, and his mind become the instrument recording what the flesh feels. He scorns every convention, mocks every dogma, and to every "must," like a naughty little child, he sticks out his tongue.

Giorgos-Ikarios Babassakis