Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #99392 in Books
• Published on: 1970-02-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 292 pages

Customer Reviews

Travels with Henry Miller around the United States
In "The Air-Conditioned Nightmare", Henry Miller writes about an automobile trip he made through the United States in the 1950's. His encounters with colorful characters, and his hilarious and insightful descriptions of the towns he passes through make this a "must read" for Miller fans. His criticisms of the banality and shallowness of American life he observed then still hit the mark. His favorite region was the South, which, as a Southener, I appreciate, and so this part of the book was especially interesting to me. Compared with Jack Kerouac's "On the Road", which was written at about the same time, this is a more cynical and negative view of America, but is saved from being merely depressing by Miller's wonderfully savage sense of humor and his ultimately forgiving human heart.

Dull pretentious ramblings of a genius on a bad day
As a fan of Miller and having read Tropic of Cancer, Tropic of Capricorn, Nexus, Sexus and Plexus I was disappointed with this effort.
Miller, returning from many years of living abroad, decided to write about his experiences traveling across America, and what his native people were really like; what the country had become, since the ideas and ideals put forth by the founding fathers.

His scathing, relentless narrative berates the 'American Dream' and 'Way of Life'...and the pursuit of such. Americans are painted as greedy, self-indulgent, ignorant of history, bereft of morals, and devoid of honour and dignity.


This book was like a sprinter. It started off interesting with interesting views on post-WWII America. But towards the end I found the book difficult to get through. When Miller's writing works, it's really good stuff, but when it doesn't it seems dull and pretentious. I found his narrative of a Hollywood party to be silly and his long winded tirade about war to be about as valid as some drunk at a bar. Not recommended.

A Convincing Rouser From A Talented Writer.
These set of essays fit more like social diatribes with travel as a platform to announce them from.Miller relates the decay of the social core in American lifestyle,a way of life which he would gladly secede for the completely human natural way of living.Although his statements are mostly convincing,an objective & critical mind would notice the few slips of his zealous & antagonistic approach where one could suspect that if he did not miss the point of the topic that he assails on,he misses it as a whole.One can sense the innocent exuberance of his dreams & derisions,like a child wishing for his toy or an adult barring a door to the problems he wants to completely forget forever.The style of his writing is vigorous,lively with occasional flashes of grin compelling wit,highlighted at times by paragraph climaxes which round up all the previous sentences to a slap driving whole.Though lacking the spine-cracking,life-altering appeal of Bukowski and the inimitable brilliance of Celine,his adamnant and at times raging missives rarely fail to convince.The work as a whole could have been better if it would have stayed true to the gist of its inception:A Travelogue.But the incongruence hardly affects the work at all,& this has got to be one of Miller's finest moments.