Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch

In his great triptych The Millennium, Bosch used oranges and other fruits to symbolize the delights of Paradise. Whence Henry Millers title for this, one of his most appealing books; first published in 1957, it tells the story of Millers life on the Big Sur, a section of the California coast where he lived for fifteen years. Big Sur is the portrait of a placeone of the most colorful in the United Statesand of the extraordinary people Miller knew there: writers (and writers who did not write), mystics seeking truth in meditation (and the not-so-saintly looking for sex-cults or celebrity), sophisticated children and adult innocents; geniuses, cranks and the unclassifiable, like Conrad Moricand, the Devil in Paradise who is one of Millers greatest character studies. Henry Miller writes with a buoyancy and brimming energy that are infectious. He has a fine touch for comedy. But this is also a serious bookthe testament of a free spirit who has broken through the restraints and clichs of modern life to find within himself his own kind of paradise.