The Horse's Mouth

I'm not going to go into a lot of detail, but I think this trilogy is one of the great works of the 20th century. The way Cary inhabits each of these very different characters, and the interweaving of their stories, the way he presents some of the same events from three completely different perspectives--each one equally self-absorbed, passionate, and convincing--is fascinating and profound. "The Horse's Mouth", of course, is a masterpiece all on its own in its depiction of the perceptions of a not very trustworthy or reputable, but relentlessly creating artist. There's a lot of humour in the books, but beyond that, they are moving and inspiring. Even the worst characters are so fundamentally human that, at least if approached with an open mind (unfashionable as that is at the moment), they leave you with a sense of hope for our absurd species.

The first thing to say about this "lost masterpiece" is that it's quite funny. --- It's quite funny. --- The second thing to say is that the pre-WWII London scene presented here by our narrator, the crafty, dodgy 67 year old artist Gulley Jimson, is that it's full of despair. --- It's full of despair. --- But there exists no despair at which Jimson, our vitalist anti-hero, can't smile wryly or cock a snook, even as his artistic visions fall into disaster in his attempts at their execution. When we meet him, he's just getting out of the nick for some smash-and-grab and when he departs he's off to hospital in a "police ambulance."Despite the novel's essentially comic nature, it's comedy with a bite; and the reader may feel a bit unsettled during and after the reading of it. The despair is quite real and quite lyrically described, with a painter's eye, one could say:"And I went out to get room for my grief. Thank God, it was a high sky on Greenbank. Darker than I expected....Sun was in the bank. Streak of salmon below. Salmon trout above soaking into wash blue. River whirling along so fast that its skin was pulled into wrinkles like silk dragged over the floor. Shot silk. Fresh breeze off the eyot. Sharp as spring frost. Ruffling under the silk-like muscles in a nervous horse. Ruffling under my grief like ice and hot daggers."Explaining what this book is "about" though, in a deeper sense - and there is a deeper sense - is well-nigh impossible. This difficulty arises from the fact that Jimson quotes Blake's prophetic and abstruse poems throughout the book. Indeed, they make up almost a fifth of the entire novel and seem to be the only thing in which Jimson staunchly believes. All this is to say that if you have a comprehensive understanding of Blake's mythology - Be clear though that Blake and Jimson emphatically do NOT regard it as mythology - you might understand this book. Any poor soul that's delved into Blake's arcana and tried to make sense of them knows full well what a bootless task this endeavour is. The only thing one can say with any degree of certainty is that Jimson, along with Blake, is the artist who thinks that the world can go hang. Art is the only reality.Thus Jimson cadges, robs, nearly starves himself, murders (inadvertently, of course) in order to follow his pursuit. Be all this as it may, when all is said and done, it is Cary's gift with dialogue and Jimson's sharp wit that catch the reader and linger. Further, the book, for all its madcap drolleries, has a twilit shroud hanging over it. The reader knows from the first chapter that Jimson will die soon, and as Jimson says:"Old men when they begin to hear the last trumpet, on the morning breeze, often have a kind of absent-minded smile; like people listening."It's no small task to wipe that smile off one's face after finishing this book.

One of the greatest novels of the 20th century. I don't know how Modern Library missed this one. Anthony Burgess regarded it as one of the greatest novels of the modern era and so did many other writers and critics. Joyce Cary is a master of colloquial British dialogue and the novel is both uproariously funny and metaphysically profound. Best of all are the unforgettable characters...,,Gulley Jonson, Sara Monday, et, al, Easily the finest novel about a painter and his art and one of my favorites. Easily in my top ten novels of all time

My little men's book club decided to read this book for reasons to hard and random to explain. It's defies classification but is beautifully written and fun to read.

Print is yoo light for me to read

Arrived promptly. The book will be a good activity gift for a friend on the mend.

I read Cary's novel because I am devoted fan of the Ealing Studios comedy The Horse's Mouth, starring Alec Guinness, Kay Walsh and other notable thespians, and wanted to see how closely the movie adhered to the novel. I found that he movie emphasizes the comic passages of the book, and diminishes some of the darker aspects of the work, including some major characters. This is understandable in the view of time available. I have to say, though, that the movie, although dark, attempts to play itself as a comedy. The book is far darker, even though the author attempts to describe Jimson's disreputable actions in a comic light. Both the movie and the book, however, succeed in trying to show the struggles of artists in attempting to express their visions in the face of a world which largely doesn't care.

I was tempted to give this only 2-stars, but I guess it is "OK". The book is interesting in some ways but I found it easy to get bogged down in it. The rather meteorological descriptions of the Thames at virtually every scene change got a bit old. And, in a recession, reading about the guy's life falling a part gets a tad depressing too...

Great seller, first copy didn’t arrived but was sent a replacement. Good read as well.

It’s a great book. Comes closer to describing the inner workings of an artist than anything else I’ve read. The film version is great too, if a little different in places. As a painter, It struck a chord or two following the vagaries of Gulley Jimson’s life and artistic quest, which is a little depressing… though I guess most artists will relate to him in some way - if nothing else, the struggle to capture one’s artistic vision in a work of art.The creative impulse, the need to give it form, to translate it, is constant, like a perpetual drug, a Walter Mitty like haze of creative thought - the one true religion you can’t switch off or excommunicate yourself from. And doing so, or ignoring it to try and force your weird shaped peg into the square hole of daily life, leads to giant, myriad pits of depression. This book describes that existence very well.

This is one of the most original and powerful novels I've read, a real classic. But I think it is important not to see the protagonist as "an artist": he has only that part of the artist that gets as far as inspiration - the artistic impulse. He never sees anything through to actual creation beyond an early arguably pornographic work, possibly unfinished. The rest is a tragi-comic abuse of a life and the lives of others in favour of a madness that cannot be confused with the rigour, dedication, skill, tenacity of real art. But Cary explores all that superbly.

It's a great book

This is one of the finest books ever written . I have at least 5 copies in conventional book form . Now I have the kindle edition . I first read it in a vintage hotel in California in 1984 during an unusually wet day . I was captivated by the energy and beauty of this wonderful book . I am still in awe of the writing after reading it more than a dozen times , it's that kind of magical work . It was Alec Guinesses favourite book and he was determined to make a film of it . The film is also a masterpiece .