The narrator’s father
The dream’s most concrete human figure: Miller’s father at the window with a rusted razor, asking for worms so they can go fishing.
Heinrich Miller — books, places, and lifeThe book
At a glance
- The narrator’s father, seen at a window
- A rusted razor
- Worms for a fishing trip
- Heinrich Miller, the author’s father and a New York tailor
- Heinrich Miller · 1865–1941 · New York
Who they are in the book
Spoiler-freeThe father in Into the Night Life is the same autobiographical figure who dominates “The Tailor Shop” in Black Spring: Henry Miller’s father, Heinrich, transformed here by dream logic.
The son approaches him for help and finds him at a window with a rusted razor. The father does not answer the need directly; he asks instead for worms and proposes fishing. Memory has preserved the gesture of stropping a blade and altered everything around it.
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