Alan Venable 2008-06-14

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

For me this is Joyce Carey's most intense and elated novel. Steeped in William Blake, laid out like a carcase in the rubble of post-war Britain. It's gritty, wild, and dogged in its obsession with the artist's soul. Also lot's of fun. After I read it the film came out and I saw it too. The film can't have the same depth and breadth of course, but it's also terrific. The message: Don't follow. Get out there. Take Me With You When You Go

Always Reading 2007-06-15

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

All readers have their favorite books, the ones you pull out every year or two to read again, or to pass along to a friend. This is mine. The Horse's Mouth is so many things. It's a visual novel -- the world filtered through the eyes of a sensual and hapless painter. It's a literary work that incorporates William Blake's visionary poetry to great effect. It's an occasionally comedic work that is also poignant. It's a story about an unreliable man who is probably not very nice to be around, is certainly not honest, is terribly self-centered, is capable of violence, and yet is thoroughly likable. One of my most common complaints against authors is when they fail to create characters the reader can care about, for good or ill. Gully is a thoroughly developed, and very flawed, character that you will root for. You might not want to come face to face with such a fellow, but he's worth reading about.

And if you like this book, go on to read Herself Surprised. Just as Cary was able to get into the mind of an artist for The Horse's Mouth, he manages to view the world as a woman in Herself Surprised. Few male authors have done this a well as he.

Misha Nogha 2006-09-16

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

This is my favorite book of all time. As an artist/author I can relate completely with the main character, the endearing, irascible but delightful Gully Jimson. It seems as though the Universe is against him trying to work and create his art! Like the great William Blake, Gully's painter poet hero, Gully is not respected and appreciated for his original artistic genius.

The prose is outstanding and rich, lyrical, poetic and beautiful, the characters unique, realistic and unforgettable. If you never read another book in your life you need to read this one first. I have read it again and again and when times get tough it always makes me laugh!

I only wish Joyce Carey had written much more as he was the best of the best.

R. Gahan 2004-09-05

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

I read Herself Surprised, and it is one of my all time favorites. I tried To Be a Pilgrim, but the main character was so pensive about everything that I couldn't take it. The Horse's Mouth is absolutely great. I'm not going into great detail about the books. You can read the other reviews. Read it if you love good literature that comments on people and the times in which it was written (in this case still rings true).

Warren Fish 2004-01-20

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

Gulley Jimson is a totally rad main character! I've never seen a profile of an artist this imaginative and complete. Gulley lives and breathes and climbs off the page right into your reality. He is obsessed with painting--he sees things he wants to paint everywhere and he describes it all in beautiful detail. This would be annoying in any other book. But Gulley is such a charmer, and Cary so talented, that as Gulley scrapes through life in his odd way, you forgive him his many faults. He's an artist after all. He perpetrates plenty of injustices himself, of course, but you appreciate his personality and philosophy so much, that you want to cut him a break.

One of the many masterful touches Joyce Cary uses is to always have Gulley working on a significant painting. It gets you to root for Gulley to do something even bigger than his one famous painting, and it makes you sympathize with the real people who put up with artists. But Gulley can't win. He is painting The Fall and it gets used to patch the roof of his hovel. He's painting Lazarus at the Grave and he has to flee from a crash-pad turned sour. He's going to sell a sketch of The Bath and instead manages to murder his only love. He's painting The Creation and the city comes and knocks the wall down. It is beautiful. Cary frames the whole novel with various potential masterworks that Gulley is painting, and in each one you see how life gets in the way of art, and how random are the winds of fortune.

We read this book in my book club and we agreed that it was one of the best of the 20 or so we've so far read together. I'm curious about the other two in Cary's trilogy. This is very much a complete work in itself, but I understand from the introduction that as a series it's even more illuminating.

This NYRB edition is printed on quality paper that stays white for a long time (I got my copy used and it's still very nice). Which is great, because you'll probably want to keep this book.