finding symbolism in unobtrusive places" and having "beautiful sentence[s]". Julian Symons wrote in 1993 that "the shock effect [of the novel] has gone", although "it remains an extraordinary document". A 2009 essay on the book by Ewan Morrison described it as a "life-saver" when he was "wandering from drink to drink and bed to bed, dangerously close to total collapse". Appearances in lists of best books The book has been included in a number of lists of best books, such as the following: In July 1998, the Board of the Modern Library ranked Tropic of Cancer 50th on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. In July 1998, students of the Radcliffe Publishing Course, at the request of the Modern Library editorial board, compiled their own list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century, and the book was ranked 84th. Between July 1998 and October 1998, an online reader poll by the Modern Library placed the novel 68th among the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. In a survey of librarians published in November 1998, the book was ranked 132nd in a list of 150 fiction books from the 20th century. Time magazine included the novel in its list of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005. The novel was listed in the 2006 book 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. It was one of the "1000 Novels Everyone Must Read" in The Guardian in 2009. It was included in the list "The 75 Books Every Man Should Read" (2011) in Esquire. Influences Influences on Miller Critics and Miller himself have claimed that Miller was influenced by the following in writing the novel: Louis-Ferdinand Céline, especially Journey to the End of the Night (1932), his semi-autobiographical first novel featuring a "comic, antiheroic character". Nevertheless, George Orwell wrote "Both books use unprintable words, both are in some sense autobiographical, but that is all." Fyodor Dostoyevsky, especially his Notes from Underground (1864). James Joyce. Nevertheless, Orwell felt that the novel did not resemble Joyce's Ulysses. François Rabelais. Henry David Thoreau. Walt Whitman, who wrote in a similar style about common people. The poet is mentioned favorably in the novel several times, for example: "In Whitman the whole American scene comes to life, her past and her future, her birth and her death. Whatever there is of value in