Max Miller (1)

The title sounds familiar, yes? But I bet you haven’t read it. Why don’t more people know about this charming lost classic from 1932? Why are there only a few librarythingers who own it? It is a series of loosely-connected personal vignettes from the life of a lowly waterfront reporter in San Diego, ranging from humorous episodes to poignant and even tragic events, enacted by a cavalcade of colorful personages that might be at home in Steinbeck’s Cannery Row or Proulx’s The Shipping show more News. The deft sketches of people and places are enjoyable, but the book’s main draw is the 28-year-old narrator’s bemused, sardonic attitude towards his mundane job and his own disappointed hopes of becoming a great and admired writer. By turns sarcastic, self-effacing, whimsical, philosophical, laconic and low key, Miller’s persona is has the ring of truth and is truly endearing, keeping this Depression era gem as fresh as the latest paean to slackerdom. It is ironic that Miller’s only seriously lasting fame was built out of this poignant tale of a nobody resigned to obscurity. show less

As a journalist, Miller's style is cool towards his subjects. This makes for a less empathetic travelogue than many others from the same time period. But still interesting, as it was written just as America was entering WWII. Also interesting because it totally precedes any tourism that would eventually change the area completely. Reading about the Seri Indians on Tiburon Island Was interesting, especially the fact that it was a tribe untouched by the missionaries, although there were more show more than a dozen missions built elsewhere throughout the peninsula.
He also traveled with two naturalists, but we never learn their names or hear anything of their work, which would have been of interest. show less

This is the sort of book that's more interesting as an artifact, for lack of a better word, than for the reading experience it represents. Max Miller was a San Diego journalist during the Depression who became nationally known when he published his collection of vignettes about the San Diego docks entitled [I Cover the Waterfront]. Two movies were based on the book, but neither reportedly bear much relation to Miller's work, other than the title and the setting. Miller spent a very brief show more period of time (evidently less than two weeks) as a scriptwriter for a Hollywood studio. For the Sake of Shadows is Miller's probably somewhat fictionalized account of that time, published in 1936. There are a few fun vignettes of conversations between screenwriters and between Miller and others who try to give him advice about how to conduct himself in the studio setting. But mostly the book is one long complaint about the crassness and vacuousness of the movie industry and the emptiness of the story Miller has been assigned to work up into a script. The problem is money, of course, the amount the studios insist on making on each picture (locking them into "tried and true" lowest common denominator projects) and the vast sums the scriptwriters are being paid, a week's worth here being equal to a couple of months pay for the reporters doing the real, meaningful, work back home (hooking otherwise talented writers into working well below their capabilities but keeping them from quitting the assembly line). Anyway, Miller makes his point early, and then makes it often. It's quick reading, though. I got through the whole book in one weekend morning and afternoon. But there's not enough detail to make this an truly interesting look at the time and place being described, unfortunately.

As I mentioned above, though, the book is interesting in some way as an artifact, or maybe "curiosity" is a better word. I found a few Miller bios and obituaries online, but none of them mention this book, or even Miller's time in Hollywood. I did find two online references. One a short synopsis on this online bookseller's site. The other is this reference in the googlebooks version of historian Kevin Starr's book, [The Dream Endures: California Enters the 1940s]. Starr refers to Miller's book as a novel, and puts it within the context of Hollywood screenwriters of the period's "continuing chorus of lament."

As a collectible, this book does have value, to anyone who might care of such matters. My first edition hardcover copy, with dust jacket, seems to worth a minimum of $50 to online sellers. show less

I enjoyed reading this book but I don't think I would have liked Max Miller. That being said, his writing is easy and interesting reading. The parts I liked best were the adventures he had with Teodomiro Ortiz, "The Colonel" who had been with Zapata all ten years and had 12 bullet holes to prove it, told Miller many stories of battles and life with Zapata and took him to locations of battles and introduced him to Zapata's wife and sister. It is quite a different view of Zapata than any I've show more read and perhaps at least somewhat closer to the truth. My favorite chapter was Fiesta in Cuautla on May 2nd and the entire 3rd chapter on "In the land of General Zapata." show less