Over at Vulpes Libris we've started another Shelf of Shame week - where the book foxes dig out the books they've been intending to read for ages, or feel vaguely ashamed that they haven't read. As I seem to be less well-read then all the others, I choose authors I've not read (let alone individual books). Last time I chose Christopher Isherwood; this time I chose Aldous Huxley. It seems that there are all sorts of men of the interwar period whom I haven't read. And I haven't even turned my attention to the Macho Men of American Literature (Hemingway, Bellow, Roth, etc.) who remain a barren land to me.
Like Isherwood, Huxley completely surprised me - not at all what I was expecting. But this time around, it came as rather a wonderful surprise. The novel is Crome Yellow (1921), and the review can be found over at Vulpes Libris. It's one that I think a lot of SIAB readers will like, and that may come as a surprise to you too...
I haven't read this since I was a teenager but (from distant memory) I thought it very good indeed. I always wondered where the "h" went.
ReplyDeleteI am certainly keen to read more AH now. But I do wish he'd spelled it differently, or chosen a different name!
DeleteApparently, this is one of the novels that inspired Barbara Pym to write. For that, I certainly thank Huxley!
ReplyDeleteOh, that does ring a bell - perhaps Thomas at My Porch mentioned it? How funny.
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