eBook One Hundred Dollar Misunderstanding ePub

Vobei

Jeez, when I was a 18 year old kid I hid this book under my pillow. The Old Man found it and tore it up and called it smut. So 50 years later just for a lark I ordered the book. I couldn't believe how tame it was. We were so intolerant t then. Glad we as a hation has grown up. Book,however, has been dated and is somewhat politically incorrect. Still a bit of a hoot.

Adrierdin

Gover's $100 misunderstanding was written in a time when to use the -F- word in public was criminal; when fraternizing with the Other could lead to a beating, or some serious jail time. Yet, our fascination with the Other goes on today.
Gover's book, a love story between a Stepford son (Waspy white frat boy) and the 14 yr old hooker, Kitten, is heartwarming and poignant. Pay attention to the language this guy puts in the mouth of these two characters. Man!
Whatever happened to novels of socio-political adventure? Dis one gots laygz.

Huston

Gover is a master of dialect and this is a character study and social commentary that was decades ahead of its time...but also very much of its time. Must read.

Rias

I enjoyed this. You might as well. It is well written. Even though it is old it is still relevant.

Morad

Great book

Skrimpak

Outstanding

Arashigore

I read One Hundred Dollar Misunderstanding in the 1960s and thought it enormously funny and daring. My present reading reminds me of my re-reading, in my forties, of Salinger's Catcher in the Rye . . . and wondering why I ever thought it was so great, except maybe because I was eighteen the first time. I'm not sure why one of these reminds me of the other. Salinger's Holden Caulfield most likely came from a richer family, was brighter and more maladjusted, and would never have done anything so social as join a fraternity. Gover's James Cartwright Holland (Jimmy) is one-dimensional by comparison. So maybe all they have in common is being white male teenagers. (I'm beginning to like the idea of Holden Caulfield meeting up with Kitten. But that would be another book.)

Gover's Kitten is a fourteen-year-old black prostitute, just entering her adolescence in a world that demands she mature at rocket speed. Nineteen-year-old Jimmy, on the verge of exiting adolescence, is cradled in the amniotic fluid of his college fraternity, where practicing for manhood means drinking hard and trying to get laid. Jimmy is part straight man, part buffoon; he is smug, self-righteous, judgmental. His depth can be measured by a one-ml eye dropper. He is the stereotypical overprivileged, shallow, arrogant white European male, the archetypal WASP.

Gover's sympathetic portrayal of the young, black prostitute contrasts with his slightly jaundiced depiction of a white, middle-class college sophomore. Despite the imbalance (or maybe because of it), the literary device of giving each character alternating chapters to describe their personal view of the action is what creates the comedy. And it is funny. The one hundred dollar misunderstanding comes about when Jimmy, who thinks pounding faster and harder is the way to wowing his sexual partners, believes that Kitten has taken a shine to him, that his manly talent has captured the fancy (maybe even the heart) of a "professional."

The first time I read it, it was hilarious. This go-round it's just funny and an interesting product of its time in history. The difference is likely my greater distance in age from Jimmie and Kitten, as well as changes in society. Although, if what one of my male friends says is true, it is still the goal of many a lothario to get free sex from a prostitute who finds him too good to resist.

I have the Grove Press version, but I notice that Legacy Classic Books now has a version with the author's original text. It was first published in France, then Britain, before finally going to press in the U.S. in 1962. I think the restored original is probably worth a read.

Robert Gover wrote this book in 1961, as a humorous light-hearted satire on racial and sexual mores in the United States. The Civil Rights movement was still in its infancy; legal and de facto segregation were the dominant structure governing race relationships, and today's current "diversity" in advertising, education, employment and all else, an impossible utopian dream. Not to mention having a President...

The novel's central theme was "too hot to handle" for the NYC publishing world, but fortunately, like a couple of prominent black writers of the time, Richard Wright and James Baldwin, it found a "home" in France, where the French version received strong reviews in "Le Monde," and other French newspapers. Finally, the book was brought back to its country of origin, in English, and publisher by Grove Press, an "edgy" publisher of the time, which published, among others, the unexpurgated version of Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer

The storyline covers a weekend in the lives of two individuals, James Cartwright Holland, a 19 year old white college sophomore, and "Kitten," a 14 year old black prostitute. An arrangement that could be used to define the term misalliance. The story is told in alternating chapters, each representing the perspectives of the main protagonists. Gover has a gift of capturing the patois of his characters, which heightens the "misunderstandings" that evolve over the weekend. Holland has just received his first semester grades, and that includes three failing ones. He decides that he needs a little "solace," and with the impetus provided by one of his "frat brothers," decides that the local "cat house" is the place to reconfirm his virility. Kitten, on the other hand, seems far too astute and wise for her 14 years, perhaps as a result of growing up without a childhood. Her "sorority sisters," well, of sorts, have instructed her on the importance of identifying potential "investments,' i.e., wealth clients, and with the wad of cash that Holland has in his pocket, she assumes he will be her "mark." And yes, the 100 bucks is the going rate for an entire weekend with her "investment."

In terms of the patois, consider from Kitten: "...he standin there wiff a lil old h***, lookin roun read dum. Gee-zuz! How dum kin one Whitboy git?"

I first read this book in the early `60's, and decided on a re-read. Both times I was impressed with how Gover seemed to capture, in a low-key way, the stunning racial hypocrisy of the time. Holland is constantly proclaiming that he is not prejudiced, and not a prude, even though the dialogue reveals how he is. Of course, he has a girlfriend, wife-to-be, that he "respects" too much to engage in any...

On the re-read however, I was also struck by the "fairy tale" aspect of the novel. The downside of these relationships was certainly glossed over, if not completely omitted, and the essence of the power relationship, well, perhaps I should just say that, like in a fairy tale, there was a happy ending for the underdog, and the obtuse college kid got his "comeuppance." There were also a couple other unrealistic aspects to the tale.

Gover's own review at Amazon should definitely be read. He is still with us, but his copyright for this book has been taken by an unscrupulous publisher so if you intend to buy this, please make sure what version you are acquiring.

So, if you are willing to suspend some disbelief, or let's say, using a more modern expression, willing to accept some "magic realism," and would like to enjoy a humorous social satire on "the way we were," or, perhaps still are, then I'd strongly recommend this book. 5-stars.