The Enormous Room (1922) by E. E. Cummings
THE ENORMOUS ROOM is absolutely a must-read for every aspiring writer. Perhaps because Cummings was also an artist, fond of sketching the characters and situations he describes in his book, he has a gift, better than any author I have ever read, for capturing and recording both the physical aspect and the personality of each of his characters.
The Enormous Room (The Green-Eyed Stores) is a 1922 autobiographical novel by the poet and novelist E. E. Cummings about his temporary imprisonment in France during World War I. Cummings served as an ambulance driver during the war.
In late August 1917 his friend and colleague, William Slater Brown (known in the book only as B.), was arrested by French authorities as a result of anti-war sentiments B. had expressed in some letters. When questioned, Cummings stood by his friend and was also arrested.
It struck me at the time as intensely interesting that, in the case of a certain type of human being, the crueller are the miseries inflicted upon him the crueller does he become toward anyone who is so unfortunate as to be weaker or more miserable than himself."
― E.E. Cummings, The Enormous Room
