A Gay and Melancholy Sound (Nancy Pearl's Book Lust Rediscoveries)
Reviews"One of my all-time favorite novels...Merle Miller has written what I think is probably the purest example of the novel as autobiography that I’ve ever read. I found unforgettable his stark and stunning portrait of an Iowa-born former child prodigy whose inability to love stems from a lacerating self-hatred. Throughout his life Joshua Bland has systematically destroyed whatever happiness could be his, knowing exactly what he was doing as he did it, but unable to stop himself. His behavior, which will perhaps be inexplicable to some readers, seemed all too understandable to me...A Gay and Melancholy Soundis certainly grounded in the great historical events of the mid-twentieth century – the Second World War and McCarthyism, to take two notable examples. Yet, Miller’s novel never feels dated or awkward: there’s no strong whiff of the long-dead past emanating from its pages. Indeed, there’s enough snark, emotional pain, and irony to satisfy even the most demanding twenty-first century reader."--Nancy Pearl, author of the Book Lust series."One of the two or three really important books to come  along in this country since the war.  I  cannot remember having read a novel that disturbed and moved me as deeply as  this one has done.  Nor have I read one  in which the ideas and technical execution have been so perfectly matched.  It is one of the rare truthful books,  painfully and blindingly so.  He has  caught at least one of the deepest truths about our times:  perhaps (I hope) not the only truth there is,  but certainly one of the most important.   It is not only his best book:   that goes without saying.  It is one of the best books." --Paxton Davis, author ofBeing a Boy"It's Merle Miller's best book—and engrossing  nightmare.  He has always been eloquent  and clever.  But in this story he is  passionate too.  His idea for a  victim-hero is a knockout, the best protagonist for the kind of indictment of  American life he makes that I've encountered."–-Ira Wolfert, Pulitzer Prize winning author ofTucker"s People