Written by: Joseph Moncure March (drawings by Art Spiegelman)
First line: Queenie was a blonde, and her age stood still,/And she danced twice a day in Vaudeville.
Why you should read this book: As far as I am concerned, this is the best poem anyone's ever written about anything; it just happens to be about love, lust, jealousy, booze, the jazz age, theater people, and the human condition, and also it rhymes. Like, imagine if The Great Gatsby and the musical Chicago got drunk and had a one-night-stand and their baby was more beautiful than either of them had ever aspired to be and also depicted people as they actually are and actually behave, that's The Wild Party. It's a relentless, fast-paced journey into the psyche of the artistic temperament and the passions that keep it ebbing and flowing like the moon's pull on the ocean. occasionally sweeping the not-so-innocent bystander out to sea.
Why you shouldn't read this book: With frank discussions of sex and sexuality and even a few words about race, this nearly 100-year-old book was once considered too controversial to see print.
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