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Understanding Jack Kerouac introduces readers to what Matt Theado calls Kerouac’s “unwieldy accretion of published work”—fiction, poetry, nonfiction, selected letters, religious writing, and “true-story novels.” Presenting this cultural icon of the Beat Generation primarily as a writer rather than as a social rebel or media celebrity, Theado elucidates the reasons Kerouac’s reputation has outlived disparaging beatnik associations and why his writings continue to attract an expanding readership. Theado takes a book-by-book approach to the sometimes-confusing canon and develops a framework for understanding Kerouac’s thematic concerns, writing techniques, and artistic evolution.

Proposing that the real legend of Jack Kerouac is the saga of a writer at work, Theado suggests that as recognition of Kerouac’s artistic achievement grows, the Duluoz Legend—Kerouac’s series of barely fictionalized re-creations of his life—outgrows the genre of autobiography and becomes an intimate chronicle of a writer’s stylistic maturation. Theado traces Kerouac’s development as a crafter of language and contends that spontaneous prose, Kerouac’s literary hallmark, may prove to be his chief claim to literary longevity. ... Read more

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The definitive Kerouac collection-now in Penguin Classics

To coincide with the 50th anniversary celebration of On the Road, Penguin Classics republishes this landmark collection. The Portable Jack Kerouac made clear the ambition and accomplishment of Kerouac's "Legend of Duluoz"-the story of his life told in his many "true story" novels. Featuring selections from Kerouac's autobiographical fiction, as well as from his poetry, criticism, Buddhist writings, and letters, The Portable Jack Kerouac offers a total immersion in an American master.Amazon.com Review
Jack Kerouacproduced a substantial body of writings in his mercurial career. His drug-and alcohol-inspired furious bursts on the typewriter created energetic andexciting prose, chronicling his experiences and impressions of the untappedrestlessness of America in the 1950s. On the Road is certainly hismost recognized and influential work, but among his other efforts are booksand stories that range from inspired beauty and to sad desperation. AnnCharters, who wrote the first Kerouac biography in 1973 and worked with himin preparing his first bibliography, has assembled here a first-rate sampleof some of his better work. The collection is a perfect way to sample Kerouacand necessary for those looking past On the Road. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

It's All Here, Folks
This is a great introduction to the range of styles and themes that Kerouac's artistry brings to the page.Ann Charters, who wrote one of the first and best of the long line of Kerouac biographies, shows herself to be a deft editor in this volume.She fits the "essential" chapters of Kerouac's major books together to present a mosaic of his talent and invites us to follow Kerouac from his "Town and City" Thomas Wolfe style through the wild marijuana sense-o-round syntax of "Dr. Sax" and "Mexico City Blues" to the benzedrine jack-hammers in "The Subterraneans," "On the Road" and "Visions of Cody".Along the way we see Kerouac's energy brown and shrivel in "The Dharma Bums"; his sentimentality run amuck in "Tristessa" and "Visions of Gerald." We read cobbled-together explanations of what "Beat" means, and the "first thought/best thought" of spontaneous prose that's become a siren song for so much post-post-post modern blather. "Who touches this book touches the man," Whitman said (or should have said, if he didn't), and the same surely applies to Kerouac, whose writing falters as his body falters and youth, health, mind and being fume away in a great "Bonfire of the Vanities."Charters gives the essentials to us--even down to the English language haiku complete with dead flies in medicine cabinets.Pick this book up first, along with the Charters' biography, then move on to Charters' Portable Beat Anthology, then branch out (if you need to) to the new volumes of Kerouac being "discovered" all the time and keep the dream, the romance of the "open road" going--along with the steady industry that Beat-dom has grown to become in the 21st century.In this chunky volume, Ann Charters presents the very best of Kerouac and does not pretend to redefine his worst writing as somehow his best, as do those with a vested interest in Kerouac the Buddhist Saint.For that, all clear-headed readers must thank her.

A Jack Kerouac Potpourri
Some of the general points made below have been used in other reviews of books and materials by and about Jack Kerouac.

"As I have explained in another entry in this space in a DVD review of the film documentary "The Life And Times Of Allen Ginsberg", recently I have been in a "beat" generation literary frame of mind. I think it helps to set the mood for commenting on Jack Kerouac's lesser work under review here, "Big Sur", that it all started last summer when I happened to be in Lowell, Massachusetts on some personal business. Although I have more than a few old time connections with that now worn out mill town I had not been there for some time. While walking in the downtown area I found myself crossing a small park adjacent to the site of a well-known mill museum and restored textile factory space. Needless to say, at least for any reader with a sense of literary history, at that park I found some very interesting memorial stones inscribed with excerpts from a number of his better known works dedicated to Lowell's `bad boy', the "king of the 1950s beat writers".

And, just as naturally, when one thinks of Kerouac then, "On The Road", his classic modern physical and literary `search' for the meaning of America for his generation which came of age in post-World War II , readily comes to mind. No so well known, however, is the fact that that famous youthful novel was merely part of a much grander project, an essentially autobiographical exposition by Kerouac in many volumes starting from his birth in 1922, to chart and vividly describe his relationship to the events, great and small, of his times. Those volumes bear the general title "The Legend Of Duluoz". Excerpts, in some cases like from "On The Road" large excerpts, from those dozen or so works form the core of this compilation," The Portable Jack Kerouac". That is why we today, in the year of the forty anniversary of Kerouac's death, are under the sign of this six hundred page `teaser'.

And 'teaser' is exactly the right word, for anthologies in general, but Kerouac's work in particular. I have tried in previous reviews to start to distinguish between what you NEED to read of Kerouac's and what is merely repetitious. The editor, who is very familiar with Kerouac's work both a devotee and something of an early and definite biography, has taken pains to give excerpts from all the main volumes mentioned above like "Dharma Bums", "Maggie Cassady" , "Vanities Of Duluoz" and the like. The problem for me is that they just whetted my appetite. However for the novice this should be the place to start AFTER you have read the master work "On The Road". As for self-styled aficionados like myself what is probably more interesting is various miscellany, poems, interviews and the like that give a better sense of this tormented working class fellaheen's writing thoughts. Nicely done for an anthology.

WILD, WEIRD, WONDERFUL--- AND WOOLLY AND WOOZY,
GRANTED that the selections are a mishmash of Kerouac styles, and at times misuse words with a kind of tender haughtiness and screw you if you don't like it but this is what I bruit. Bruit? But at his best Kerouac time and again tells us of that railroad earth and trains rolling under October skies and rushes up our noses with piney phrases that would raise gooseflesh on Thomas Wolfe. What's more, Ann Charters serves Jack nobly by inventively selecting along a timeline that captures the hero's age throughout, a superb bit of editing much like Malcolm Cowley's for The Portable Faulkner in which he patched together a groundbreaking picture of Yoknapatawpha County from Faulkner's many works. A Must-Have Kerouac volume that should break ground for new readers and give old admirers a bath in that old spontaneous prose he dreamed up nightly with candlelight on the kitchen table, booze, and weed. Some of it's mush, some visionary, and much of it just what writing should be: straight from the heart.

Well edited, but it has continuity issues
This collection is wonderfully edited.There are no major breaks in the plot and Ann Charters commentary provides a good context to understand the book (e.g. she provides a table that matches character names to actualpeople).However, since the books were written out of order, the immenselydifferent writing styles of Kerouac's different novels do not mesh well attimes.It is fine for somebody who has had previous exposure to Kerouac'swriting and now wants a survey of all his different styles, but I wouldgenerally recommend buying the individual books.

almost confusing
For a true kerouac reader, i think it's worth it to work through this book.It's long, but a good part of it is the editor talking, a woman who has a true love of Kerouac.It's a little bit of everything, from hisletters, to his ideas on buddhism(my personal fave)It's a good, but long,read ... Read more

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Two ebullient young men are engaged in a passionate search for dharma, or truth. Their major adventure is the pursuit of the Zen way, which takes them climbing into the high Sierras to seek the lesson of solitude, a lesson that has a hard time surviving their forays into the pagan groves of San Francisco's Bohemia with its marathon wine-drinking bouts, poetry jam sessions, experiments in "yabyum," and similar nonascetic pastimes.

This autobiographical novel appeared just a year after the author's explosive On the Road put the Beat generation on the literary map and Kerouac on the best-seller lists. The same expansiveness, humor, and contagious zest for life that sparked the earlier novel ignites this one. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Kerouac's Best
Kerouac may be best known for On The Road, but this is by far my favorite of his books. Looking back, it has probably been the most influential book on my life. The story is just sohonest and original and beautiful, it confirmed my desire to be a writer when I read it as a sophomore in high school. But not just a writer. It made me want to live my life without shackles, free like Kerouac's character Japhy (Gary Snyder), climbing mountains and writing poetry. It captures the Boho 50's era like no other, especially in the Bay Area. Finally, it inspired me to learn more about Buddhism and eventually spend a year in a Buddhist monastery. I've never met someone who has read The Dharma Bums and hasn't loved it.It's one of the best books of the 20th century.

By Jaimal Yogis, author of Saltwater Buddha

Reading The Novel Seems Better
Can't say that this really grabs me like On The Road did. I feel less like in on the action and comings and goings of the people mentioned in the novel. Admittedly this may have to do with the fact that I actually read On The Road before I purchased the audio book and I only read part of The Dharma Bums, before getting the audio book. The person who narrates the audio book seems bored and listless.

On the Road To Enlightenment
Less plot, more pot than On the Road. Where Kerouac's most famous novel was all about reckless travel, music, girls, and rebellion, Dharma Bums is more introspective.Lots of meditation, soul searching and existential ruminations about life, truth, and nature. My only regret is that I didn't choose the book format, as it was hard to keep up with all the philosophical ramblings while listening in the car. ... Read more

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Drawing upon original interviews and his own relationship with Kerouac, Ellis Amburn reveals an inner man who has not appeared in any previous biography-a man torn by his conflicting desires and beliefs. Subterranean Kerouac has been singled out as one of the most significant biographies to appear in years, and it shows how Kerouac struggled throughout his life with poverty, alcoholism, and his doubts about his own lifestyle of substance abuse, indolence, and promiscuity.Amazon.com Review
At the heart of Jack Kerouac's hidden life is the conflictbetween his "homoerotically inclined life and the blusteringmasculinity" he felt compelled to demonstrate. As a youth inLowell, Massachusetts, Kerouac was a football hero, brash and rowdy,pursued by the local coeds. But his strongest emotions focused on anartistic high school friend, Sammy Sampas, whose physical advancesJack ultimately rejected and forever mourned. This failure to resolvehis emotional and sexual identity set into motion Kerouac's two-headedmonster of creativity and self-destruction.

Though his novels depict rampant sexual freedom and distinguish him asa stylistic innovator, Kerouac himself was reined in by the taboos andsocial constrictions of the 1930s and '40s. Friendships with AllenGinsberg, William S. Burroughs, Neal Cassady, and other beat originalshelped him indulge the homosexual side of his nature. Yet the internalconflicts raged, and running along with them were Kerouac's Benzedrineand alcohol addictions.

While Amburn's biography is rich with the salacious adventures ofhipsterism (trysts with Ginsberg between parked trucks in GreenwichVillage; the frenetic cross-country trips immortalized in On theRoad; the Kerouac Sex List, which tells exactly with whom and howmany times), he takes a serious look at the twisted Kerouacpsyche. Amburn has a unique vantage point as Kerouac's last editor,and we benefit from their friendship with the confidential detailsKerouac supplied during the editing process. Kerouac often insistedthat "every word I write is true," but Amburn readersdiscover a man tortured by the dueling sides of his own dividednature. --Joan Urban ... Read more

Customer Reviews (15)

A Life of Lost Weekends
I found this book interesting and illuminating in a gossipy sort of way.Amburn is obviously a writer in love with the genius of his subject, but appalled at the devastation alcoholism brought to Kerouac's life and art.The emphasis on his struggles with his homosexual tastes struck me as almost a side-bar to the tragedy of his alcohol abuse.Most of the characters come off as simply human and flawed, though some come off as sicker than others (Burroughs), while others come off as decidedly healthy (Snyder).In the end, the book made me want to read more Kerouac, and therefore I call it a success.

So What...a waste of space
Jack kerouac's sexuality...ummm...a subject for a book on his life. I read it through. There isn't anything new here if you read or listen to any of the Beat novels, poems and journals. It's interesting that in Kerouac's "Vanity Of Duluoz" the dedication page states "Extra special thanks to Ellis Amburn for his emphatic brilliance and expertise". It's pretty evident what drove Jack to write. It's all in his books. "Dr Sax" comes to mind. One good place to look for the real Jack Kerouac is not with this waste of time book but at a clip of him reading on the Steve Allen Show...look at his face when he finishes...closely. It said more about him than a thousand pages of bio's and bad press.

SHEER MAGIC
This is pure, addictive reading pleasure as it leaves no stone unturned in its investigation of Kerouac the author and Kerouac the man. Not only that, but it also sheds light on a whole generation of bohemians and contemporaries of Kerouac whilst providing valuable background and insight into the literary masterpieces produced by this generation that included William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Paul Bowles, Neal Cassady and many others. Their lives prove that the path of excess often leads to the most sublime literature. This book has stimulated my interest in the Beat writers all over again and I shall reread their classics once more, this time with a clearer understanding of the interpersonal relationships and mutual influences underlying the text. I believe Amburn's excellent book is indispensable for a thorough understanding of the Beats and is a brilliant reference work with its copious notes, extensive bibliography and thorough index. The text is enlivened by black and white photographs all the important people, places and documents that played a part in Kerouac's life. Impeccable scholarship and an engaging writing style combine to ensure a riveting read and a valuable reference source that I certainly will return to again and again.

A Flawed But Valuable Kerouac Biography
Ellis Amburn's thesis is that Kerouac's personality and art were shaped by his struggle to reconcile his macho side with his latent homosexuality. His argument is not altogether convincing but thankfully it is basically a minor theme in what is otherwise an excellent biography. And Amburn's theme does raise valid unanswered questions about Kerouac's sexuality. Ginsberg's homosexuality is, of course, no secret, and both he and Kerouac acknowledge that there was some activity between them. And Neal Cassady's attempted hustle of the homosexual driver of the "fag Plymouth" in the motel scene in "On the Road" suggests that he was probably bisexual. But Kerouac himself is purposely vague on the details of his own homosexuality, so Amburn's interest is justified.
Anyone familiar with Kerouacs work, however, will likely have problems accepting Amburn's argument. Conflict over sexual ambivalence simply seems inadequate to explain Kerouac's obsession with life and death, joy and suffering, and man's relationship with God. Certainly Kerouac's loss of his brother Gerard at age 4 had a greater impact on his art than did reconciling whatever homoerotic feelings he had with his self-preferred image as a macho writer.
Many critics have apparently dismissed Amburn's book altogether. The fact that the chapters have been given ridiculously purpletitles like "Muscles, Meat, and Metaphysics", and "Sucking Asses to Get Published" doesn't add much to the book's claim to respectibility. ButI found it a valuable and highly readable biography, which presents a picture of the author which I found more accessible and understandable than the Charters or Nicosia books. His research seems sound enough,and there are extensive notes and references, many from JK himself.
Amburn was Kerouac's last editor (he edited "Big Sur") and his comments on working with Kerouac are interesting in their own right, especially when he comes out and asks Kerouac just what he meant in certain ambiguous passages. He also presents numerous details that are omitted or glossed over in the other books, such as the details of the Kammerer murder and the exact nature of Bill Canastra's gruesome death during a subway prank. After reading his book I have a much better understanding of Kerouac's football career, the attraction he felt for Borroughs, and his comples relationship with his mother and with women in general. Details like this flesh out the picture, and do much to make Kerouac's personality more understandable.
I disagree with those who denigrate this book, and after two readings, it has become my favorite Kerouac biography. That Amburn's central thesis doesn't quite hold water (for me, at least) does nothing to lessen the value of this very enjoyablebook.

Offers respect
This book is a tricky one.

It's interesting to read a work that was so elegantly written and thoroughly researched but with the obvious agenda to "out" a man who is already well-known to have been "bisexual" in his activities. A credit to the author is that he does freely admit Kerouac's love (and in fact preference) for beautiful women, but do we as readers really need a diatribe about how wholesome homosexuality is?

It's kind of a stretch to blame most of Kerouac's problems on his supposed conflict between hetero and homo leanings. Sexuality seems more a spectrum that is embraced by bisexuals, not a stark decision that must be made on either the "hetero" or "homo" side. Kerouac seemed to revel in his openness, not always torment over it! Obviously gays experienced much discrimination in the fifties and Kerouac probably felt a bit of this tension. Many readers do not need to hear so much about his sexual feelings/behaviors in general and grandiose psychological theories about the underpinnings of his conflicts and genius.

The substantive portions on Kerouac's strivings as an artist and goal toward publishing are very well-written and quite informative. I really felt that I was taken into the mind of this ambitious genius beat writer.

Amburn's discourses on his closeness to Kerouac did not upset me; they seemed like ingenuous efforts to convey his fondness for Kerouac.

The football content was treated thoroughly and reverentially, which I enjoyed. Also, Subterranean sheds much light on the real itinerant nature of Kerouac, his undying love for his mother, and a variety of other tidbits seemingly culled from trusted sources.

Mainly the book is intelligently written, engrossing, and the fact that it's pissing off a lot of people would have probably warmed Jack's heart.

This book meets my number one criterion for a biography about a person who is no longer with us (if you can ever justify writing one)- that it is written mostly objectively, and with a lot of respect. This one successfully does just that.

I'm raising a glass right now.

B. Wallace/author/Labyrinth of Chaos ... Read more

Product Description
The first volume of Jack Kerouac's selected letters, published in 1995, was hailed as an important and revealing addition to Kerouac scholarship. This second and final volume of letters, written between 1957, the year On the Road was published, to one day before his death in 1969 at age forty-seven, tell Kerouac's life story through his candid correspondence with friends, confidants, and editors--among them Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Philip Whalen, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Joyce Johnson, and Malcolm Cowley. Documenting his continuing development as a writer, his travels, love affairs, and complicated family life, the letters also reveal Kerouac's amazing courage in the face of criticism and his never--ending quest to be the best writer possible.

Jack Kerouac: Selected Letters 1957-1969 offers unparalleled insight into the life and mind of this giant of the American literary landscape. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

A Literary Document of Great Worth
For any biographer or historian the original letters of the subject is a valuable and extremely important source of information in order to gain insight into the time period, and/or the person under study.

In part 2 of Kerouac's Selected Letters, the text truly gives the student or curious, a penetrating look into this enigmatic and ultimately tragic American author. For many, Jack Krerouac represents an important shift in American literature but also a significant historical (literary) mark of an entire generation. Ann Charters, (Kerouac's first biographer) editor of this volume, has done a pain-staking and beautiful job with this book - we come to know him as a man, the artist and his concerns; generosity, relationships; his struggle with the demon drink and, most importantly, the development of his unique prose style, leading to his now iconic status.

The letters begin in the year (1957) when "On the Road" was published. At this stage of Kerouac's life, from the tone and content of his letters, he is excited, finishing incomplete manuscripts, organizing "get- togethers', writing his publisher and working on new projects. As the years progress, sadly, his drinking accelerates, he becomes more and more misanthropic and, in the end, paranoid. It is true - it was the booze that killed his body but it was fame as an author that murdered his soul. More than likely, it was both.

Ann Charters suggests that these letters were experiments in style and possible new ideas for future projects, his friends perhaps 'sounding boards' where the reader can see his development of what is famously known as "spontaneous prose".

Kerouac was also a prolific poet. Some call his "novel", Mexico City Blues, one long, epic poem. This particular book, for me, was difficult to read, until viewing the piece as poetry - it was then the penny dropped and the book became much easier to read.

An example of a little poem written for Stella Sampas to Gary Snyder from Japan:

"A poem to Stella Sampas?"

"After the shower,
Among the drenched roses,
The bird thrashing in the bath

After the shower,
my cat meowing
On the porch"

It has always been my opinion that Jack's poetry is underrated, but that's neither here nor there.

Kerouac wanted his letters to be published thus he kept copies in neat files by year.

Anyone interested in American literature, pursuing a research project or wanting greater insight into the man, these letters are an invaluble historical document revealing the inner workings of the "Beat Generation" that continues to affect most modern writing to present time.

Kerouac....in his own words.
First, the recommendation is to read the companion book, and predecessor, Selected Letters: 1940 - 1956, before starting this one.Both books are really two volumes of the same story.

Those familiar with Kerouac's writing will recognize the characters, scenes and events from the letters as the basis for his groundbreaking novels.Via his letters, you get the unvarnished versions of the later quasi-fictional accounts (and the legend aside, Kerouac's novels were quite polished in their own way - no syllable written by accident).However, these letters (and the excellent non-intrusive editing/comments by Ann Charters) serve as the best biography (auto-biography) written about Kerouac (and I've read them all).Perhaps no person in literature experienced as many self-inflicted highs and lows as Jack Kerouac.He could go from the highest peaks to the deepest vallies from one letter to the next.

In addition, the ceaseless restlessness that gripped him his entire life has never been documented any better, or with more frustrating clarity, than in these letters.One day, Kerouac thrills at the prospect of a cabin in the woods in utter isolation(to get away from the partying New York scene); the next day he has plans to live on a commune type ranch with all his friends - or move to Mexico, or Colorado or San Francisco or any number of addresses on Long Island or Florida.Many of these moves he actually followed through on only to find, in very short order, that his urge to wander had returned.At these times you notice Kerouac dropping lines to friends outlining why his new paradise has been destroyed and how perfect the next paradise is going to be.

Such was his self destructive path and, in reading these incredibly personal letters, one feels the end approaching as the America Kerouac immortalized dies a slow death, only to be reborn as an entity Kerouac is given partial credit for creating - a credit he had no interest in claiming.When all is said and done, however, the tragedy of Kerouac pales in comparison to his renowned love of life and his obsessive need to document the beauty (and ugliness) that surrounded him.These letters reflect a time when people - a great many people - got excited about poetry, literature, art and just being alive.A time before pseudo-intellectual-hip-irony made it impossible to get excited about anything.KEROUAC LIVES!

definitive-she knew J.K. well...
Ann did interview Jack & takes part in many literary forums..."beat'.The last great living 'Beat' hipster is...L. Ferlinghetti. The last,best bio on J.K. will be Doug Brinkley's..he hasfull access to archives,Sampas controlled estate,in Lowell, MA.

Highly recommended for all Jack Kerouac fans!
An excellent survey of the writer Jack Kerouac and recommended picks for any collection strong in Kerouac presentations. Ann Charters edits Jack Kerouac: Selected Letters 1957-1969 presenting his late letters. her firstvolume contributed to a new understanding of Kerouac and his work: thisvolume also includes the same attention to notes and detail, furthering hergoal of presenting his life via his writings.

Kerouac - Selected Letters Review
Good book. I knew that Jack had his problems later in his life but this book really shows that he got off track in the late 50's rather than the 60's. This book reads real fast in that you can't put it down. It revealsthe relationships that Jack had with the other Beat Poets among otherpeople. I recommend this book to all interested in Kerouac and the BeatGeneration. ... Read more

Product Description

John Clellon Holmes met Jack Kerouac on a hot New York City weekend in 1948, and until the end of KerouacÂ's life they wereÂ--in HolmesÂ's wordsÂ--Â"Brother Souls.Â" Both were neophyte novelists, hungry for literary fame but just as hungry to find a new way of responding to their experiences in a postwar American society that for them had lost its direction. Late one night as they sat talking, Kerouac spontaneously created the term Â"Beat GenerationÂ" to describe this new attitude they felt stirring around them. Brother Souls is the remarkable chronicle of this cornerstone friendship and the life of John Clellon Holmes.

From 1948 to 1951, when KerouacÂ's wanderings took him back to New York, he and Holmes met almost daily. Struggling to find a form for the novel he intended to write, Kerouac climbed the stairs to the apartment in midtown Manhattan where Holmes lived with his wife to read the pages of HolmesÂ's manuscript for the novel Go as they left the typewriter. With the pages of HolmesÂ's final chapter still in his mind, he was at last able to crack his own writing dilemma. In a burst of creation in April 1951 he drew all the materials he had been gathering into the scroll manuscript of On the Road.

Biographer Ann Charters was close to John Clellon Holmes for more than a decade. At his death in 1988 she was one of a handful of scholars allowed access to the voluminous archive of letters, journals, and manuscripts Holmes had been keeping for twenty-five years. In that mass of material waited an untold story. These two ambitious writers, Holmes and Kerouac, shared days and nights arguing over what writing should be, wandering from one explosive party to the next, and hanging on the new sounds of bebop. Through the pages of HolmesÂ's journals, often written the morning after the events they recount, Charters discovered and mined an unparalleled trove describing the seminal figures of the Beat Generation: Holmes, Kerouac, Neal Cassady, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Gregory Corso, and their friends and lovers.

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On a rainy night in San Francisco, just before Thanksgiving in 1959, Jack Kerouac, Lew Welch and Albert Saijo piled into Welch's car and set off on a cross country trip, headed for New York City and then on to Kerouac's mother's home on Long Island.

Trip Trap is a record of that journey, notes from the road by three of the central figures of the Beat Movement as they shared booze and coffee and peanut butter sandwiches, talking and singing and versifying while the country slipped by out the window. Here are the haiku that Kerouac, Saijo and Welch jotted down in notebooks, along with a recollection of the trip written by Saijo in 1973, a section from Welch's unfinished novel that describes the trip and the return, and Welch's early 1960 letters to Kerouac that continue the bond of friendship forged during those days on the road together. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Three voices, one volume
"Trip Trap: Haiku on the Road" represents a collaborative effort by Jack Kerouac, Albert Saijo, and Lew Welch.There is also an editor's note by Donald Allen.The book is divided into 4 main sections."A Recollection," by Saijo, is an 11 page memoir of the road trip during which the poems in the book were written."We Started for New York," also about the trip, is the opening of an unfinished novel by Welch.The main text, "Trip Trap," is a body of poetry attributed to all three as a collaborative effort.And finally, "Dear Jack" is a collection of letters (dated 1959-60) from Welch to Kerouac.

"Trip Trap" is thus, despite its short length (69 + vii pages), a diverse text with a fascinating history behind it.The poems are not haiku in the strictest sense; I would call them "haiku-like."The poems offer some interesting imagery and reflections on the American landscape, as well as a number of literary references.We get many glimpses from the men's journey--radio antennas in Texas, cows in Nebraska, a cross on an Arizona highway, etc.A particularly interesting section involves a Saijo haiku with alternate versions by Welch and Kerouac.

The book overall is infused with the sense of discovery one gets in traveling across the USA.Saijo notes that the poetry in the book "has the fathomless art of random speech overheard through the course of a day."I really enjoyed "Trip Trap."

One To Avoid Unless You're A Real Fan
Lew Welch and Jack Kerouac...two of my favorite writers on the road with Albert Saijo (who turns out to be a fine memoirist) right after Kerouac's roaring success with On The Road. There they are madly yapping away in front seat and back of Lew's jeepster Willy, rushing through the nights and days of innocent (well, really not so) America, and stopping once in a while to record it all in haiku.It's got to be a classic, right?Think again.Sure there are one or two good haiku to be found in the collection, and Grey Wolf Press includes enough supporting material to add context and some pith to the purchase, but this book is really for the die-hard Gotta-Have-It-All-Right-Down-To-The-Laundry-Lists-fans of beatdom.Ring of Bone, On The Road, and just about every other book written by these greats will give you more for your money.

It pays to be talented and famous
Such "haiku" - "They make good coffee / in Oklahoma" - not particularly haiku, not particularly interesting ... if I wrote the lines, they certainly wouldn't be published ... there are other similarly brilliant entries: "There's Mister I-Cower- / under-My Car" or brilliant stand-alone lines "Whore candy". Trip Trap leaves me unimpressed.

However, the book contains a recollection of the trip by Albert Saijo, the trip as described in an unfinished work of Lew Welch, Trip Trap itself which is a collaborative effort between those two and Jack Kerouac, and finally some letters of Lew Welch to Jack Kerouac.The net result is a book that gives insight into the beat movement and into the minds of Kerouac and Welch.For those with even a slight interest in either topic, this is an interesting and informative book.

WILLYS JEEP HAIKU
TRIP TRAP IS YET ANOTHER ADDITION TO KEROUAC'S LEGEND, A SWEET LITTLE COLLABORATION.THIS BOOK TIES IN BEAUTIFULLY WITH BIG SUR (YOU'LL SEE) AND SHOULD BE PLACED NEXT TO IT ON THE SHELF.LEARN MORE ABOUT HAIKU; READTHIS BOOK. ... Read more

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There are few writers about whom it can be said that they write just like they speak, but Jack Kerouac (1922–1969) is clearly one of them. In 1957, Kerouac was a struggling writer trying to create a new literary aesthetic based on the rhythms of human speech, jazz-based improvisation, autobiography, and American slang. That year saw the publication of his second novel "On the Road", which would instantly propel him to fame and ensconce him in the literary establishment. By 1969, he was dead of internal hemorrhaging brought on by excessive drinking. Though his literary reputation may have faded, the revolutionary zeal of his novels and the originality of his voice ensure that his books are continually popular. Whether because of his literary merits or his status as the voice of a new generation of writers, Kerouac is the unchallenged king of the Beat generation.

"Conversations with Jack Kerouac" features interviews ranging from 1958 to 1969, covering the breadth of the author’s fame and literary output. Including a piece from the Paris Review and a confrontational interview with CBS’s Mike Wallace, the collection reveals Kerouac -- whether drunk or sober, erudite or infantile, guarded or convivial -- as a thoughtful writer and complex thinker who resisted all labels placed on him.

The interviews show how Kerouac revitalized American literature, but they also trace his artistic and physical decline. The final interviews show how much the writer had crippled himself emotionally with too much alcohol and how his art became more unfocused as a result. Ultimately, Kerouac emerges as a tragic figure whose early greatness in such books as "On the Road", "The Dharma Bums", and "The Subterraneans" was subsequently consumed by his inability to evolve aesthetically and by his reliance on substance abuse for inspiration. ... Read more

Product Description
This authoritative biography of writer, poet, and beat generation icon Jack Kerouac (1922-1969) recounts in gripping detail the story of his exceptional life and the key relationships that affected Kerouac's development as an artist, including those with his three wives, numerous girlfriends, and beloved mother. Kerouac presents a fresh and more accurate account of the author of On the Road, one that neither ignores nor wallows in his flaws. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

Well Done and Insightful Biog...
Excellent and well-written account of Kerouac's life in down to the day/hour details in some instances.No aspect of Kerouac's life and psychology is left unexamined.I've read more than a few biogs on Jack, and this one is a must-read.It brings the dead man alive.As Carolyn Cassidy might say, 'Nice job, Jr.'

Satisfying account of a very sad life
***First of all, please note that I strongly disagree with the Publishers Weekly review posted above.I think it's way off-base.***

I bought this book because I wanted to know who the REAL Jack Kerouac was.Once I got through "On the Road," that challenging, maddening, yet beautiful 1957 autobiographical novel, I wanted to get a close-up on the soul and the life events of the book's author."Kerouac: The Definitive Biography" fit the bill.

This is a very good, level-headed, thoughtful, careful, judicious, lowlights-and-highlights, warts-and-all study.Indeed, it is not a perfect book.I wish it had been twice as long, and twice as rich in details, testimonies, and anecdotes.(That would have been a 1,000-page book, which certainly would have been nixed by any publisher.)But this biography is certainly fair-minded and thorough.

The real problem--although it's not the fault of the biographer--is that Kerouac's life was so achingly heart-breaking.It is automatic, but entirely reasonable, to quake at the fact that Jack Kerouac inspired thousands and thousands of young Americans to want to be just like him, when in fact he was an angry, lonely, alcoholic loser.

Paul Maher's book is a lucid, fair-minded, well-worded monument to all that shined and all that fizzled in Jack Kerouac's far-too-short life.I recommend this book highly as "one-stop shopping" about Kerouac's life.This biography is an effective, admiring-but-not-fawning portrait of a great American artist who lived short and suffered long.

Comprehensive Personal Biography
This is a new biography about 500 pages long covering virtually all of the life of Jack Kerouac. It is written by a long time Kerouac "fan and student", a local Lowell, Mass. High-school teacher Paul Maher. Basically it is a sold and well written book. I do have a couple of very minor problems about the biography concerning the level of detail. I think for many it is almost too much detail about the non-creative side of his life, and it might have been better to have a bit less detail about his marriages and more details on his books and how they evolved and fit in with his life - but that is just my personal preference and many will like what the author has done. That is why I am giving it 4 stars not 5.

The book starts of with the Keouac family in New Hampshire around 1720 and a good part of the book explores his family and childhood, especially his Lowell years. The author has included a nice collection of black and white photographs taken of Kerouac during the different stages of his life including some family photos. Pictures of his family in Lowell with his older brother and younger sister make Jack appear almost normal. Later we see him in a bar scene and other scenes wearing for example a rustic plaid shirt and pictures with his wives.

The book appears to very complete and covers his parents and their problems, his creative and free spirit growing up, his scholarship to Columbia, navy career, three marriages and his famous friends or associates including Allen Ginsberg and Neal Cassady, the latter being his traveling companion in his famous novel On the Road. This was the famous "beat" movement - as most people are well aware. There are quite a few Ginsberg and Cassady references sprinkled through the book, and there are a lot of details on his marriages.

Jack led an intensive life, often clashing with authorities, traveled widely, and moved a lot then died young at the age of 47 from a failing liver caused by too much drink. He left his mark in the literary world as a remarkable writer with a unique style. The book covers a lot of ground, both good and bad mainly on his personal life and especially his Lowell Massachusetts connection. The book is divided into many short chapters, each covering a short segment of his life, such as trips to Mexico, Denver, etc. and how he was changed by success - he did not like it. Having read some other biographies where I could compare at least two different authors of two different books, it is clear that any biography is dependent upon the author and his bias. Not being a Kerouac expert it is beyond my ability to and most readers to make those distinctions in the present case, but it seems accurate and relatively neutral in tone. It gives the good and some bad, and is not just a fawning positive fan book.

Solid job, lots of detail for Kerouac lovers, 4 stars, possibly 5.

Excellent Biography
I loved this book, couldn't put it down.Jack Kerouac's life was fascinating.Paul Maher came through with an extremely readable book, even though he had to insightfully digest a mountain of documentation to write it.

A detailed, comprehensive, definitive life of Kerouac
Paul Maher's "Kerouac: The Definitive Biography" is by far the most comprehensive and detailed account of Kerouac's life ever written. Unlike previous biographers, Maher has chosen wherever possible to rely for his work on Kerouac's own journals and letters. As such, this biography takes a necessarily different slant to other accounts. Whatever the perils of this approach (Kerouac, like all of us, had a propensity to mythologise his life in his private writings as much as in his novels), this book uncovers a wealth of new information that was previously unavailable.

Maher makes no claims to being a literary critic, so this biography is not the place to look for in-depth analysis of Kerouac's novels. (For that, Tim Hunt's "Kerouac's Crooked Road" is unmatched on "On the Road" and "Visions of Cody", and Gerald Nicosia's "Memory Babe" is great for a `big picture' analysis of the relationships between the life and the work). However, if you are looking to understand the forces that shaped Kerouac, his French-Canadian origins, small town upbringing and Catholicism, there is simply no better place to start.

Because of the unprecedented access Maher has had to the Kerouac archives, this biography uncovers a personal Kerouac that we have not seen before, and much detail on the final years of his life that previous biographers have not revealed. I read "Kerouac: The Definitive Biography" in conjunction with "Windblown World: The Journals of Jack Kerouac 1947-1954" and found it entirely consistent. Indeed, I wished that Douglas Brinkley had chosen to include more in the edited journals. As long as Kerouac's life continues to attract as much attention as his work, biographies will continue to be written. But it will be a long time before one as comprehensive as this is published.

P.S. The small matter of the editing inconsistencies in the footnotes is to be addressed in the next printing. This is a minor distraction to an otherwise excellent work, and the only reason I didn't give it five stars. Thoroughly recommended ... Read more

Product Description
The long-awaited reissue of the definitive biography of Jack Kerouac, unwitting avatar of the Beat Generation and author of On the Road.

Jack Kerouac--"King of the Beats," unwitting catalyst for the '60s counterculture, groundbreaking author--was a complex and compelling man: a star athlete with a literary bent; a spontaneous writer vilified by the New Critics but adored by a large, youthful readership; a devout Catholic but aspiring Buddhist; a lover of freedom plagued by crippling alcoholism. Desolate Angel follows Kerouac from his childhood in the mill town of Lowell, Massachusetts, to his early years at Columbia where he met Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, and Neal Cassady, beginning a four-way friendship that became a lifelong obsession. Kerouac's frenetic cross-country journeys, experiments with drugs and sexuality, travels to Mexico and Tangier, and years of failure, frustration, and depression are recounted with detail and sensitivity. Desolate Angel is a harrowing, compassionate portrait of a man and artist set against an extraordinary social backdrop. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

A wild ride with a lot of style
Agree with all the reviews of this book - if you want to learn about Kerouac in relation to the movement & the times, this is the best place to start. McNally is an outstanding biographer.

Amazing bio
I got this after having seen Kerouac's original manuscript scroll on display at the Denver Public Library. This book is fascinating!It reads so smoothly and gives you just about all the info you could possibly ever want to know about Kerouac and his 'beat' cronies.

A living, freewheeling account of life's ultimate beauty
This is a biography, but as the fluid phrases turn and the images flow, you are transported into the time and space inhabited by Kerouac, and his band of unruly "beats."
The reproduction of NYC locales where Kerouac hung out are painstakingly recorded in this book...you could make a checklist of buildings, streets, and landmarks to visit in Manhattan so that you know where to tread where the great Piscean hipster had once tread.McNally adores every character in this tale, but his adoration seldom gets in the way of his unbiased depiction.I could be mistaken, but he even adopts some of Kerouac's run-on writing techniques to parallel this portrayal with a stylistic homage.
As a snobby lit major and aspiring writer, I was skeptical about whether a History scholar could entice me with a lively writing style, or could do justice to the life of a great writer.McNally has done both with sheer brilliance.The words sparkle, the images shock, comfort, and familiarize you within this strange world.This is not a dull, turgid historical text.It is a living, freewheeling account of life's ultimate beauty through the pathos and elation of it all.Buy the damn book!

painting Jack's Angel in a bigger canvas
I can't believe more people haven't written reviews of this book!It's essential if you're a Kerouac fan.It's by far the best-written word pictures of the bigger world Jack lived in.In fact, based on how well it was written and the accurate big picture it captured, Jerry Garcia found the author and brought him in to do the same thing for The Grateful Dead as their official biographer.[see A Long Strange Trip]

I've got pretty much every Kerouac or Beat bio published, and other than the oral biography 'Jack's Book' which is in a class of it's own because its just a bunch of quotes, this is the best because of how it marries a passion for the subject with a creative historian's eye.it has the same graphic, visual enthusiasm of Jack's voice, mind and writing, without being a cheap imitation.hmm, not unlike how Jimmy Herring's guitar playing in the Jerry-less Dead -- creating from the same pool of color and intent, painted with a similarly deft stroke, but unique and only imitative in subtle knowing energy loving ways.

The main vision of this work is how it paints the bigger canvas of the cities, culture, and country that Kerouac lived in.Other books may tell the ABCs of where Jack went when, and Jack's own books paint well the person he meets at the roadside coffee shop, but Jack was doing a series of small intimate portraits.Only indirectly and by implication did he write about popular culture and mores, or the politics and global events that were shaping the nation's mind.

This book is only comparable to cultural histories or documentaries on NY or SF or America of say 1940 to 1960.What this did for me was fill in the picture of what was going through the minds of all the "neat-necktied producers and commuters of America" that Jack was surrounded by but never really entered their world.What WAS the America that Jack rejected and stepping out of onto his Dharma Path?thank god Kerouac captured what was going on in the hip pioneers' cabins in the rare clusters of non-conformity that were the embryos of the entire counter-culture soon to blossom, but obviously most serious broad-minded historians don't love Jack enough to set their studies around his story.so equally thank god we've got one historian Jack-channeler who fills in the sets around jack's characters.

Just to be clear, the book Is all about Jack and the people in his life, it's not Mostly a 40s / 50s history book, there's just More of that big picture stuff in here than in any other Jack bio.For me, there was more of an 'ah-ha' in this book, as I understood more all the other people walking along Market Street and filling Times Square and commuting to the suburbs of Queens and Las Gatos.

Excellent read that offers beadth on the Beat Generation
This is an excellent choice for a reader wishing to gain a broad perspective on the Beat Generation's major and minor characters, their relationships to each other and their significance as artists.Within this framework, Kerouac is the focus.Not a definitive Kerouac biography, but will leave you longing to read one.I recommend Kerouac's book of letters next, than either Charters' or Nicosia's biography followed by Jack's Book (which is composed entirely of third party opinions and stories, etc about kerouac). ... Read more

Product Description

Product Description
"First take best take," to paraphrase Allen Ginsberg, was for years the ethos presumed to have governed the making of Robert Frank and Alfred Leslie's classic Beat Generation film Pull My Daisy (1959)--until Leslie revealed in 1968 that its scenes had been as scripted and rehearsed as any Hollywood movie. Even Jack Kerouac's famous voiceover narration, which careens wonderfully in and out of sync with the action, was actually composed in advance, performed four times and then mixed from three separate takes. But the film remains a supreme document of Beat Generation energy at its peak, with several of its key players starring: Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, Larry Rivers, Peter Orlovsky, David Amram, Richard Bellamy, Alice Neel, Sally Gross and Pablo Frank (Robert Frank's then-infant son). Based on an incident in the life of Beat muse Neal Cassady and his wife Carolyn, Daisy tells the story of a railway brakeman whose painter wife has invited a respectable bishop over for dinner at their Bowery apartment. The brakeman's "Beatnik" friends crash the occasion, and the playful provocations ("Is baseball holy?") they put to the bishop ("Strange thoughts you young people have!") baffle the clergyman's propriety and expectation of a "civilized" evening. This book interweaves the script of Kerouac's narration with film stills, and also includes a 1961 introduction by Jerry Tallmer. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

A side of Kerouac you seldom see
Everyone knows of Kerouac's famous road trips, hitchhiking or riding the rails. And Lowell, Mass. is famous as his hometown. But few think of Kerouac's time spent in Florida, which was actually where he found fame on the publishing of On the Road and where he wrote, among others, the stellar Dharma Bums.

Kealing depicts Kerouac's life in Florida in a starkly honest way, sprinkling interviews with neighbors and friends along with the story of the last 10 years of Kerouac's life. You get a sense of Kerouac's mad love of nature and his family as well as the depression that drove him to drink himself to death. It's a very moving account of the life of an often-misunderstood literary genius.

Great Work
Bob Kealing's "Jack Kerouac in Florida:Where the Road Ends" is an oasis of fresh water for those who thirst for the radiance of the beat generation.Kealing's investigation not only tackles controversial issues surrounding Kerouac's life but also uncovers fresh chronicles and knowledge.Furthermore, Kealing's work provides real life personalities to a number of Kerouac's long time friends and family.Most of whom, Kerouac wrote about in "On The Road" and other beat novels.I also found Kealing's narrative of Kerouac's adventures in Florida captivating. Simply but, it's an adventurous biography about the original adventurer.

New Insight into Jack Kerouac
I highly recommend 'Kerouac in Florida: Where the Road
Ends'. This book brings to light details of a critical time in
Jack Kerouac's writing career and personal life. The reader
comes along on Bob Kealing's expertly researched and
documented investigation into Kerouac's Florida
connections, and his life in the Sunshine state. Kerouac
himself never wrote extensively of these times in Florida
as he did of many other parts of his 'Legend of Dulouz',
his own life story. We see Kerouac on the verge of fame,
and then see him as he comes out of the other end of the
tunnel after the publication of 'On the Road'. We see his
struggle to come to terms with his public persona, his
struggles with his own family and the sad end of the road.
This book is a great read, each chapter revealing more
and more detail of the artist who has gathered so much
attention, positive and negative, over the last 50 years.

Drawing on well documented interviews with neighbors,
friends, drinking buddies and aquaintances of Kerouac, as
well as Kerouac's own writings and letters, 'Kerouac in
Florida' paints a portrait of the 'King of the Beat
Generation' that has not been seen before. By visiting
where he lived in Florida we get a sense of how he lived.
First hand accounts of people who knew him on a day to
day basis provide some of the most telling details of
Kerouac's lifestyle and comportment. It is not what you
may think.

Bob Kealing's work on this book was also instrumental in
establishing the house where Kerouac banged out his
follow up to 'On the Road', 'The Dharma Bums', as a
historically significant landmark. This house in the College
Park section of Orlando, Florida is now home to The
Kerouac Project, a house where writers in residenence are
provided the opportunity to create.

This book includes never before published photographs of
Jack Kerouac that show the man at work in his Florida tin
roofed back porch apartment, creating in his own unique
manner. I could not put this book down.

Long overdue look of Kerouac in Florida
Although the book has major shortcomings--foremost a real stretch to actually form a book and not a lengthy article--Kerouac's time in Florida is finally revealed. A sad tortuous hell of an existence in the state--just what the reader expects.

A Major Contribution
Bob Kealing's Kerouac In Florida is a major contribution to not only the cultural heritage of central Florida but to Kerouac's biography as well.Though he spent years in Florida, these periods of Kerouac's life have been lucky to get a paragraph in most biographies.After years of research, Kealing has finally told the story of Kerouac's lost years.The book is rich with personal recollections from people who knew Kerouac in Florida and information on current efforts to establish and preserve Kerouac's place in the history of central Florida.A must-read for anyone interested in Kerouac the author and Kerouac the man. ... Read more

Product Description
Jack Kerouac's musings on the creative process are collected together for the first time in this exquisite book. In the 1950s Allen Ginsberg asked Kerouac to formally describe his "spontaneous prose" method, resulting in a list of maxims called Belief and Technique for Modern Prose. Kerouac entertains with sage advice, whether he's offering a sublime reminder to "believe in the holy contour of life" or a practical admonition to "accept loss forever." With a foreword by Kerouac scholar Regina Weinreich and select photos from the Kerouac Estate, You're a Genius All the Time is a beautiful and intimate work of inspiration. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Essential
I love Kerouac's rules of writing. Although both of Kerouac's writing articles found in this book can be found online, I'm quite happy that I have this collection. Plus, when has something being online stopped people from buying books in the past?

The small book is beautifully (and simply) bound. The beginning section (his Belief's and Techniques) is full of excellent and appropriate black and white photographs of Kerouac and his friends doing what they do best - living. The typography is great - fast, bold and lively, just like them. The second half of the book (his Essentials), is simpler, with a basic courier new typewriter font. It's more descriptive, and less spur of the moment. Essentially, it's perfect for what he's saying.

I can't say enough how much I like Kerouac's style. It's crazy and utterly confusing at times, but it's him and I appreciate that. The book is inspiring for any writer, and an essential for any beat fan. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

'What's Your Road, Man?
Before there were Hippies or Yuppies, it was hip to be "Beat".The generation of writers, poets, artists, and musicians living Bohemian lifestyles, yearning for knowledge,and enjoying life to it's fullest.

"On The Road",a novel based on Kerouac's own travels, follows the adventures of the life loving Sal Paradise and the complex Dean Moriarity as they criss-cross North America, usually broke, trying to find themselves. They experience life, and lifestyles new to them and savor every moment. Every colorful character they encounter touches their lives in some way, and adds greatly to this story. Kerouac's zest for life and love of people becomes apparent and is contagious.His wonderful descriptive phrases leave you with fabulous images of the people, the places, and the times.I often found myself smiling or even laughing out loud.

It's a story that captures and preserves on it's pages the essence of the "beat generation" and is so engrossing, you may lose track of all time. And for those that love Kerouac's words and can't get enough,you can take him with you! This book is also available on an unabridged CD -On The Road CD or cassette-On The Road audio editions. With a reading that will give you an even deeper appreciation of these wonderful characters,one that brings them to life, actor Matt Dillon,captures every delicious moment as if he was Kerouac himself.For details on the audio editions - see my reviews.

With every read, I have a great time, and wish I was there!

"What's your road, man?"....enjoy...Laurie

extremely uneven but culturally important meandering across America
This is a book that surfaces again and again in popular culture. Last year I saw high school students in the show "Freaks and Geeks" discuss it in their English class. In the Australian indie film "He Died with a Felafel in His Hand," the protagonist aspires to be a new Kerouac, repeating over and over how Kerouac wrote the whole book on a roll of butcher paper to avoid the artificial structure imposed by separate sheets of paper.

So I read the book; actually, I listened to the audiobook narrated by Alexander Adams (published by Books on Tape). Kerouac has some excellent turns of phrase: he loves laughter, as the protagonist (Sal) encounters a man with "a long quivering crazy laugh," one whose "tremendous laugh roared over the California woods," one whose "laugh was maniacal," and yet another whose "laugh...was positively and finally the one greatest laugh in all this world." And Kerouac tells some great stories.

But the book was frustratingly uneven. Sometimes the stories are really interesting, and other times they drag on and on, with exhaustingly unchecked hedonism and lack of purpose. Note that the book is also pretty gritty, with lots of alcohol and drug use, and several depressing sexual encounters. A friend asked me to compare the book with Steinbeck's Travels with Charlie: no comparison; there is a reason Steinbeck won a Nobel Prize. But the other fundamental difference is that Steinbeck traveled with purpose (to get back in touch with America), while Sal travels with no purpose but to "go, go, go." ... Read more