Bk 39 Dear Dear Brenda

I slipped one in on the side. I love Shipping News, but I started this other book and it was due back at the library so I finished it up.

Dear Dear Brenda: The Love Letters of Henry Miller to Brenda Venus is my book 39. I have adored Henry Miller since I was 18 and had my first bookstore job. A co-worker told me Henry was depraved and pornographic. I read Crazy Cock that night. It was his first book. It wasn't very good because it was a novel; my real love of him came later with his non-fiction about traveling around the US, tramping in France and retiring in Big Sur. I think I fell in love with him because he was so smart and knew about being sophisticated and a class act but he talked like a sailor and had sex with everything. I like contrast.

This book is heart breaking. I am sure that he always wrote with the expectation that they would be published one day, so I don't think he was exploited or anything, but I think that it is sad to publish these letters because he is a crazy old pervert. He was always a pervert, but he knew what he was doing and he had publishers and editors to help him even it all out. Not that he should be censored, but I just think these letters expose him in a way that he loses credibility. We all get crazy when we are that old, but it is sad to see someone you admire act like a dumb ass over some slutty actress. Maybe I am jealous or just disgusted, I don't know. But I thought it was disturbing.