Neal Cassady Books

Not bad, not bad at all, if I do say so myself.

This book was so good that it made me want to plunge deeper into the life of Neal Cassady, espeically. Yet, after reading them all (don't even bother with the book, "The First Third,"), none of them come close to this little "Heart Beat" book by Carol Cassady. Maybe that's because it seemed to be written when she wasn't at all sure of Neal Cassady's place in the scheme of things.

A Good Biography of an Interesting man {the muse of On the Road} Very Descriptive this book also covers Allen Ginsberg.Jack Keroauc,William Burroughs, and Several Other people of the Scene to a lesser extent.Very Informative and Engaging.

this book was required reading when I was in high school, to be able to reread it with all the real people mentioned was a wonderful treat

This is an excellent version of a cult classic book that I HIGHLY recommend. With real names, more details and a sweet introduction you can't go wrong.

KLB

I read the standard version of ON THE ROAD years ago - and loved it. But having just read the unbroken by paragraph or chapter rush of the scroll version, it's like the literary equivalent of a Wellesian cinematic long take. And it makes a difference, a big difference in the book. It is no longer a book, it is the very onrush of Life and it is trip that carries you along whether you want to go or not. There is a truly hypnotic appeal in this unbroken narrative that is, yes, diluted in the standard version. The real names are welcome, the more explicit sexuality is welcome - but it is the literary long-take that makes this original version so complelling and irresisitable. (And just as an aside, as there would be no true Abbott without Costello and vice versa...there probably would not have been a Kerouac without Cassidy. Or if there were, he probably would have been lame and tame and not much remembered. But Kerouac's writing of the "Holy Goof" Cassidy smacks of a synergy that comes pure from Heaven - or Hell, if you disapprove the admittedly madcap lifestyle of the book's main hero.) Anyway - back to my main point - the unbroken scroll reads like how it was meant to be...for in its FORM is its very meaning...and that is that Life is a road and a rush and a journey and a thing to be explored, adventured into, seeking, searching...for Life is Movement and this book is the most mobile book ever written. A must...like a breath of fresh air! Like the wind blowing your hair through the open window of an immortal car on an unending drive. An Odyssey for our times - still! Thanks, Jack!

Fifty years ago
A wind started to blow
across America land of the free
The change was from normal to strange to beatific ectasy
and all be-
cause one man broke the sanctified clause between seen and unseen
and since his intense vision
of life, of love, of joy of strife
none of us could ever be the same again

Who do I worship? Who do I blame?

Jack.

I read his books/ I bleed his books dry with coffee in one hand
Blue Pentel in the other
And the man is blindly mad as well as kindly Saint brother

Him paint-
ing word pictures of pivateslideshowlife for all to see
He
and his pal Dean Moriarty
going across this great big wild plain

A trip for child mind
For angel heart
For illumiated soul
For frustrated dry bones of body weak

Shallow, hollow, small and frail
Hoping to find the Holy Grail.
Seek and ye shall find more than you could know

He infected intellects with sick artistic glow
Gave new license to be free
with words so easy without structure without form
so startling so mad so glad so sad
this storm of Beatific Fury.

Hip beyond words his echo remains
and his literary gifts still stains this world
In 1967 we sent the saint back to Heaven
no one to fill Jack's old shoes
no one will
and I got the blues

Poor sad Jack.

We need you back.


Peace & Blessings,
john, 'the Light Coach'

I mean, it's hard to write a review of something that people are stil trying to figure out exactly what it is, poem, novel, autobiography, jazz riff, all the above. It was great to see the unedited, unchanged version with original names and some relatively (to our times) tame sexual themata. I whizzed right through it trying to capture to wild ride Kerouac was on while writing this single paragraph tale of our age. When read alongside the more familiar version with paragraphs and quotations marks and pseudonyms, it was easy to see the power of the book and the overwhelming effect it must have had on readers when it first came out, even if it was in the more muted version. I loved it.

It also doesn't seem like the kind of book which requires either a synopsis or a lengthy review. This is not the Count of Monte Cristo, let's face it. It is hard to say that the book has a real plot per se. But it shook a generation because of its immediacy and honesty and emotional power. Maybe Truman Capote didn't like it (he called it "typing" not writing). But this was something new and raw, and plenty of people didn't like Miles Davis either.

The first thing that surprised me about these letters was how fine Cassady's vocabulary was; and how well-read he was. The letters really show why he was such a profound influence on Kerouac and Ginsberg. Also, these letters weren't written to be published, so they are unforced and natural. How about that sexual exploit on page 77? My goodness! Can we, in the year 2006, forgive Neil's use of the "N" word in the year 1948...in much the same way as Mark Twain's use of that word? I guess that's up to each reader to decide. Anyway, I find this book to be a superlative example of a modern muse in action.

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Now's your chance.......

Read between the lines of what Jack Kerouac
was saying in On the Road, or at least get closer
to his hero Dean Moriarty (real name Neal Cassady).

This book officially published this winter in the
USA and available on import in the UK is a
CAUSE CELEBRE of the Beat World. Possibly
the best Beat read you'll have had since On the Road.

Neal Cassady's Letters - produced by Carolyn
Cassady and others, brilliantly edited (and that
doesn't mean cut) by Beat authority Dave Moore.

Having read On the Road we think we know it all?
We don't know half of it. Neal's Letters flesh out
the legend. For instance they show the married side
of Neal with intimate letters between himself and
Carolyn, something On the Road barely touches on.
They reveal the extent of the 'manage a trois' which
existed between Neal, Carolyn and Jack.

You want something even spicier? Try the long letter
to Alan Ginsberg starting on p.199 ...or Diana's note
on Neal p.142-143, or Neal's outrageous letter starting
p.327 and you'll see why Neal Cassady joins The
Marquis de Sade, Casanova, and Rasputin as
a sexual enchanter.

Bristolian Dave Moore's meticulous annotation and footnotes
link the letters, explain them, and make a narrative of them.
They prove Neal an engaging writer who's free-form
style inspired Kerouac in his genius to make
a prose-poem of the tale.

It's not difficult to see why Kerouac and his muse have
been down-graded over the years, and even vilified.
There's enough work here for a thousand sociologists.
At a time when, here in Britain, Jamaican men are
being persuaded to change their `out husband' lifestyle
and settle down with their wives and the children they
father, Neal Cassady epitomised the very life style
they're eschewing becoming the `white negro' of
Kerouac's classic, not only in terms of jazz music
and pot, but also adopting the black male role of
sex-object and stud.

No wonder the media wants to play him down - the
man who hitched a train and threw a generation off the rails.

As Joe Strummer said: "When we first read On
the Road we weren't digging Kerouac's prose - we
wanted to be like Dean Moriarty". He ended his life
as only a man like that can - broken and crying on
a railway line in Mexico.

Saint or sinner? Looser or winner? As the man who
straddled 100 women and Kerouac's prose makes
his literary debut - you make up your mind!

Neal Cassady was, for most of his adult life, a prolific writer, spreading his hep words to the likes of Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Bill Burroughs, and other beat writers who used Neal as the star of many of their works (especially K). Cassady is a born storyteller, as is evidenced by his energetic and exciting letters; however, it becomes evident that he is not a born writer, and as exciting as his letters are, they say quite little. Regardless, it is obvious how Cassady became a new archetype of American modern literature, and fans of the Beats would be remiss not to check out this wee tome. Note that after his imprisonment for distributing "tea" the volume drops off considerably. Was it prison, life or LSD that lessened the latent genius' writing? We'll never know.

Neal Cassady fans rejoice! This is the book you've been waiting a long, long time for. If Neal has captured your imagination (he's certainly captured mine) surely you've been frustrated about how little information there is about him. Yes, he's Dean Moriarty, Cody Pomeray, Speed Limit, and Cowboy Neal. He even wrote an (labored, as you'll discover) autobiography, "First Third". But, in a way, none of it prepares you for these collected letters because it's within them that we get to see the many sides of the Neal Cassady legend, primarily in his own words.

The two aspects I enjoyed most about this book were his hopes to be a family man and his desire to be an author, favorite aspects I suppose because that's not how I saw him previously. He tried hard to be a good husband and father but his muse wouldn't let him. And in these letters you see the creative, free-wheeling writing ability he was capable of but just couldn't get together in book form. Kerouac credits Neal for inspiring the style he'd develope for "On the Road" and on, and throughout the 50's encourages him to continue his writing.

The bulk of this collection dates before 1957, before the publication of "On the Road" and the whole beat sensation. In that regard it's very special to have the inside look at these letters which at the time of their composition no one would have had the faintest clue would be published. These are letters between friends, aspiring artists and lovers when there was no email and long distance phone calls were a luxury. Neal's writing was sometimes pedestrian but at other times it would soar, making clear why Ginsburg, Kerouac, etc argued he was the greatest writer of the group.

The editor Dave Moore does a wonderful job bringing continuity to the letters with his commentary throughout the book. He connects the dots where needed providing necessary back-story in an unabtrusive manner.

One complaint I do have about the book is that during the 60's the quantity of letters seriously drops off. He wrote less and less or the letters are lost or both, but it does leave a hole in Neal's story. As a result we miss out, in his words, on his life as he transitions from the beat generation to the hippie generation.

I have come to some new conclusions of my own about Neal, as will any reader. There is room for more writing on this most facsinating subject (esp his life in the 60's--why, he even lived with the Grateful Dead at their famed 710 Ashbury residence during the Haight's blossoming) but "Selected Letters" fills a huge void.

Jack Kerouac is a great writer, who wrote some great books. Neal Cassady is the energetic, life-filled hero of many of them, including "On the Road," in which Neal is represented as "Dean Moriarty."
Tom Wolfe is another great writer, who wrote the amazing "Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test," in which Neal is also a prominent character, this time the driver of a psychedelic busful of hippies.
In these books, and in others, Neal Cassady stands out distinctly as a fascinating character worthy of study--a man with an almost bottomless manic energy, the sex drive of a large crowd, and a penchant for joyriding in stolen cars.
This book here, however, goes a little deeper, is a little more personal, and as a result, damages many of the romantic illusions that have been built around his character.
This is Neal's life in his own words, in words from letters meant only for his friends and lovers and family, not for the public. There is some dishonesty here, but still it's very intimate, and very disclosing.
This book shows the sides of Neal that were often downplayed in books about him, sides that would have made him a much less sympathetic character: the neglectful way he treated and cast aside his wives and children, the almost psychopathic detachment from the crimes he committed and the women he used, the anger and the bitterness over his lot in life, the general disloyalty, the pathetically unsuccessful attempts at trying to be a writer, and the transparent tries to make his often empty life seem more significant than it was and his often horrible choices seem less like choices and more like fate.
All that would be fine however, if he had only been a better writer. As it is, the book is still a fairly compelling read that will keep you turning the pages and keep you interested. But the writing is typical. Average. Drug-addled. Bland.
He never had the discpline to cultivate what talent he may have had, and it shows.
This is a book to read to acquaint yourself better with Neal Cassady the character...if you want to. Unfortunately, along the way, you'll have to get a bit involved with Neal Cassady the writer.
He's certainly no Kerouac, even if he did help to inspire his style.

A very high quality production run, hard-bound with illustrated dust jacket etc. of a very hard to find modern classic. Read Thompson as he was before he became a cartoon character like caricature. Succinct and insightful with the acerbic wit front and centre where it belongs. A cracking good read ! Excellent value too in this Modern Libraries edition. Why pay all-kinds of stoopid money on E-bay for a dog-eared paperback when you can have this for little more than the price of lunch for one alone.

In depth report of the infamous motorcycle gang by the only person with enough gall and wit to pull it off; Hunter S. Thompson. Excellent correspondence of what the Hell's Angels stood for in their prime. If you enjoy learning about the brutality humans are capable of then this is a book for you.

Hell's Angels begins: "California, Labor Day weekend . . . early, with ocean fog still in the streets, outlaw motorcyclists wearing chains, shades and greasy Levis roll out from damp garages, all-night diners and cast-off one-night pads in Frisco, Hollywood, Berdoo and East Oakland, heading for the Monterey peninsula, north of Big Sur... The Menace is loose again, the Hell's Angels, the hundred-carat headline..." With a start like that how could you help but be hooked? This is Hunter before Gonzo.

Hunter Thompson's Hell's Angels is a fantastically written profile of the outlaw motorcycle club from their postwar origins to their explosion on the public conscious in '64-'65. It begins with the Angels gaining nation-wide attention via a fumbled rape trial and follows the surreal path that led to their interactions and then clashes with Ken Kesey and the counter-culture movement.

Hunter takes an odd stance here. He seems to oscillate between respecting their rebelliousness and really looking down on them as worthless losers. This sort of Yin-Yang of the Hell's Angels follows through the book. They are both repellent and attractive and Hunter does a very good job of sussing out why this is in writing that is compelling and often brilliant. Liberally sprinkled with quotes of contemporary articles, song lyrics and scraps of poetry that fit into the text without distracting.

Hell's Angels is a gritty, classic slice of reportage that manages to entertain in the way good fiction entertains with a gripping narrative and larger-than-life characters.

I was born in 1962 and was too young to appreciate the special generation that the 60's spawned. The Hell's Angels were definitely NOT to be messed with in that time period. But he hung out with them and wrote a compelling book about the demons on Harleys with deft mastery. They actually almost killed him when they found out they were not getting paid for the information gleaned from HST. The 60's to me were a hazy memory and I remember flower power, Watergate, Nixon, Hippies, etc. But the Hell's Angels were dangerous and belligerent; not to be messed with. They fueled a rage for the tiniest of infractions. Mainstream society in the 60's were definitely shocked and afraid of them with good reason. I sort of saw them as buffoons, but it is a great book. It rocketed HST to fame and fortune.

It is really astounding how many definitions of "Gonzo Journalism" there is floating around out there...What really is Gonzo Journalism?

According to many sources, Gonzo Journalism is a "hands on approach."; what the journalist is writing about 'becomes' his subject matter. Compared to Method Acting, this is NOT acting but BEING the subject matter making the representation "real".

(Thompson, in his mind, stoned and alcohol affected, became one of them. (Angels)) But after reading the text again, there is that "objectivism", a couragous journalist, (who loved: writing, drugs, guns, whisky, politics and rock and roll) writing about a topical situation in America at the time - he was in his element.

Timing is everyrthing.

One particular scene in the book is a bit frightening, (this one is a minor one.)

The Angel's, in the 100's are headed for a small town of a population of twenty-thousand - 12 cops and one Chief...

"Consider the alternatives available to a chief of police in a remote town of twenty thousand?...the motorcycle outlaws are due to converge on him in a matter of hours...nothing in his experience has prepared him to face an army of half -human hoodlums, a modern day James Gang...infamous thugs who would just as soon stomp on a cop as they would on a toad, and once they get out of hand, the only way to handle them is with brute force." (P.113)

What does the chief do, but hope for the best...contain them and eventually move them on...well easier said than done.

There is something Romantic about Thompson: a 30's style journalist, cigarette in mouth, punching out the stories on an old Remington between swigs of Irish whisky.

After reading his collection of political stories from various publications from Rolling Stone to the New York Times, one gets the feeling that he was, paradoxically, on the pulse of the Present but writing from another Time.

This in-your-face style of journalism has an aura of honesty...something we have not read in quite sometime.

The "Hunter" was from a generation that now is gone.

In terms of "historical-realistic" texts, Hell's Angels, is a Thompson Classic & the beginning of Gonzo Journalism.

This is a must read for any beat fan since its Neal Cassady in his own words. Good family background and thorough childhood description. The other writings were more interesting to me personally wanting to hear more about the second third. I dont know, this review [stinks].

A few chosen people are meant to be artists. Of the artists, there are painters: others sculptors, musicians, poets or writers. For some, like Neal Cassady, their medium was Being.

Although a muse for the likes of Ginsberg, Kerouac, and Ferlingetti, and in many ways the adrenaline to the Beat Generation, Cassady was not a writer. Writing wasn't Neal's gig. Perhaps the pen was too slow for him; the medium just couldn't convey his essence. Rather Neal was a live show. It seems cruel to find him trapped on paper - like watching a tiger at the zoo, the wild drained off through those all confining bars.

The first few chapters of The First Third are slow and seem forced. However, the vibe changes drastically once Neal's family tree is throughly discussed. It's as if Cassady has quit the pretentious wordplay and dictated thoughts to paper, which give the remainder of the book a much more genuine feel.

The most enlightening segment of the book is the select correspondence between Neal, Jack Kerouac, Ken Kesey and others. It provides an insight into Neal that is raw, unedited and seems a much more accurate description than Cassady's own attempt at biography.

This book is great if you truly want to get into the mind of the fastest man on the planet. just like neal who could jump around from one topic to the other in mid-sentence, that is exactly the way he writes the book. Don't confuse neal with jack, because neal is to fast to sit down and read in one setting. And the letter at the end make for some good and funny reading. If you truly love the beats and want to see what the heartbeat is really all about, check this book out.

The Beat-Ups had an unrealistic romantic notion of the heartland and the sticks. They slummed their way through America and insisted that everyone else share their own infantilism, incredulity and narcissism. Bukowski, rather, tells it like it is without any literary pretensions and pleading for understanding. On the Road and other such stuff is useful as a historical document of pre-interstate road travel, and not much else.

Beat-Ups should grow up, get a job and pay the rent.

I heartily advise you all to read Ham on Rye and Post Office. This will give you an insight into real America.

The First Third is a far cry from being one of the best books that I have read. However, if you are a fan of Jack Kerouac, as I am, this book is a must read. In reading this book you get an understanding of who neal thought that he was, and how he got that way. This book is essential if you want a more complete understanding of Kerouac's On the Road. The fashion in which this book is written borows much style from Cassidy's compaions, consisting of some of the greatest minds of twentieth century literature.

I enjoyed this book immensely. A behind the scenes view of what life was really like for your favorite Beat personas. The book was easy to read and hard to put down.

As great as the Beat fiction is, and life-changing as On the Road is, we get too caught up with the fictitive personas of the Beats. It's nice to see the side of Kerouac, Cassady, and Ginsberg that didn't make it into the novels. I'm sure Carolyn's viewpoint is skewed a little, but so is what we read in On the Road. Between her work and their work we can get a picture of what they were like, not as legends, but as men.

There are times when Carolyn bogs down with too much detail, or too much whining, or patches that just aren't great writing, but all in all it is a good biography, autobiography, and novel.

If you want to know more, here is a good place to start, along with these books, though you probably have read them by now: Kerouac's On the Road and The Dharma Bums; Cassady's The First Third; Perry and Babb's On the Bus; Ginsberg's Howl

It was interesting hearing about Kerouac & Cassady
from a woman's point of view, especially a woman who
was so intimately connected to the dynamic duo. She
dwelt on the negative ramifications a bit too much for
my taste, but then again, these have never been really
examined in much detail prior to this books release.
For those of you who have at least a passing interest
in the beats, I would recommend this book.

This book is all right, I must say that I enjoy the fact that Carolyn owns up to her own faults, such as her jealousy and such. I think that it is easy to judge her from 50 years down the line because so much has changed socially. She fell in love with Cassady at a time where women didn't just get up and leave their men if they were cheated on. Divorce was not as common as it is now. The women of the beat generation lived life on the edge of suburbanism. Most of them found themselves in the unusual and yet somehow liberating situation of being the primary breadwinner. I found Carolyn Cassady's biography to be an interesting account of an intelligent and talented woman who walked the line between her own more old fashioned sense of morality and the life Neal Cassady introduced her to. She mostly seemed to want his friends to go away. I think that he still would have been as wild if they did go away, he would have just found new friends. I don't blame her bitter attitude toward a lot of his friends though. It is a frustrating experience when someone's friends see only the party side of them and don't see what it does to the person's family.

Carolyn did, unfortunately, hang tight for a while to her belief that she could hold onto her husband. Hard to say if her version of their relationship is accurate or not. I do believe her account of what happened, but I also believe that he was a smooth talking guy who probably had similar conversations with his other two wives as well as all those other women. This obviously has to be a biased book, it involves the woman's marriage, I should not expect her to be able to look at things too objectively.

I guess the reason I call this book only "all right" is in part for selfish reasons (I like Neal Cassady, I like Allen Ginsberg, I like the Grateful Dead, I like Ken Kesey), the same things I appreciate about the book, such as her bitterness and jealousy, are the same things that kept me from fully enjoying it. The other reason I call this book merely "all right" is because Carolyn is not a writer. Joyce Johnson's memoir "Minor Characters" blows Cassady out of the water. While Cassady's life seems to have revolved around her husband, Johnson's somewhat brief affair with Kerouac is not her only claim to fame. She is an author in her own right and quite a good one. So Cassady's book reads more like a biography and Johnson's more like a novel. Which is all right. But still kept the book from being the sort of thing I would reread over and over.

And for the record, to respond to someone's questions about the author's facts - I don't believe Carolyn states that Kerouac died on Oct. 31, but rather that is when she found out about it. Also, he did not die on the 20th, but rather the 21st.

I read near-obsessively, and this is one of the few books from the past four years that I've started and not been able to finish.

When Carolyn Cassady isn't attempting to elicit readers' sympathy for her as the poor, neglected wife of beat luminary Neil Cassady, she's trying to claim that Neil's genius excuses said neglect. Ultimately, neither pity nor admiration for Carolyn is possible.

I still can't decide whether Carolyn Cassady is simply pathetic or simply trying to cash in on her husband's fame.

This book is for fans of Beat Writers....or those interested in Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters. This is a comprehensive and well researched and written biography on Neal Cassady, a buddy and inspiration to Jack Kerouac. ( Neal was Dean Moriarity in On the Road) as well as the driver on Kesey's bus trip to New York and a key figure in Kesey's Merry Pranksters. The authors' make the point ( which Kerouac also espoused) that Neal's ecstatic and uncensored letter writing style greatly influenced Kerouac's switch to spontaneous writing following his publication of The Town and the City (Kerouac's first Wolfian styled book) and resulted in what eventually became On the Road....with Kerouac's and Cassady's adventures being the central part of the book. Neal, at Jack's urging to be a writer, struggled to be a writer of novels and of consequence...but outside of letters, some quite long, and a book titled the First Third, nothing ever great came from Neal's writing. So he served as an inspiration to Kerouac and those he encountered especially Kesey..Neal's great myth was based on his amazing mind and his physical presence in the world. His was a high energy and at times a tortured life. This book seems like a balanced telling of Neal's life and is consistent with some of the people who I have interviewed who knew Neal...I could question a couple minor points but they really don't belong in this general review nor are critical to the overall thrust of the book....It's amazing this book was completed by two authors, one dying before the book was completed, because the writing style remains consistent through out. If this is a topic area you are interested in, this is a book worth reading...well done.

Neil Cassady acted on the periphery of the Beat movement for much of his adult life and thus never enjoyed the fame that Kerouac, Ginsberg, Burroughs, and his other contemporaries did. His written legacy is primarily the correspondence that he wrote to members of his inner circle as well as a fragmentary autobiography. And yet, in many ways, Cassady lived the Beat life that most of his renowned friends only wrote about or experienced cyclically. The author refers to him as a "natural psychopath" who didn't possess the ability to abstain from hedonism. Contrariwise, he was one of the few Beats to lead something of a "traditional" home life. Namely, he held down a job with the railroad as brakeman for ten years, married, and raised a family.

The author of the present biography, William Plummer, does a reasonable job of recounting Cassady's life. He takes us through Cassady's birth on the side of a road, the turbulent years as a child prior to his parents' divorce, his adolescence in a flophouse, numerous criminal activities, various sexual encounters (men and women), efforts made towards self-improvement, a multitude of travels (of course!), a legion of marginal jobs, marriages, time with the Merry Pranksters, and, finally, death just a few days shy of his 42nd birthday. Whew! As I read the book, I couldn't help but be reminded of Jim Morrison of the Doors. It has been written that Morrison was a big fan of "On the Road" and identified particularly with the character of Dean Moriarty. Much of Morrison's antics seem to be intentionally or unintentionally inspired by Cassady/Moriarty. While in San Quentin, Cassady said "I just want to write by myself. I'd like to retire to a little house and write, just to cultivate myself. It would be just like working in a garden--cultivate myself and cultivate the garden......" In a 1970 interview with Salli Stevenson, Morrison said "If I had it to do over again, I think I would have...a...a..gone more for the...a...quiet...a...undemonstrative little artist plodding away in his own garden trip." Sound familiar? I think both men would have been interesting acquaintances, but exasperating friends.

While basic aspects of Cassady's life are conveyed, Mr. Plummer does tend to show a certain unbridled enthusiasm towards his subject. We are told that Cassady had some psychic gifts and that he could, on occasion, answer questions that he "picked up telepathically." The author feels no need to provide any proof of such assertions other than the rather dubious hearsay evidence of a few acquaintances. This, along with a certain thread of affinity that runs throughout the book, leads one to believe that the author has set aside objectivity. Thus, caveat lector. In the end, I think this biography would be instructive to someone with no knowledge of Cassady and his cohorts, but the reader would be advised to look elsewhere for deeper insight into the man and his times.

A Good Biography of an Interesting man {the muse of On the Road} Very Descriptive this book also covers Allen Ginsberg.Jack Keroauc,William Burroughs, and Several Other people of the Scene to a lesser extent.Very Informative and Engaging.

If you've ever read the Electric Kool Aid Acid Test then it would be hard for you not to remember the fastestmanalive. He was a wildman that crossed from the Beat generation (he was Moriarity in Kerouac's On the Road) to the first inklings of the hippie generation. He also died before his time. Maybe he lived longer than anyone thought. This book was fun. Most of the characters from this period crack me up. However, sometimes this read like a fan book. Although I don't know why he needs fans. But if you are interested in the 60s (yeah!) then this is one more thing that you will get a nostalgic kick out of.

Neal Cassady is a man both revered and despised. This book, which anyone interested in the given time period should read, gives an unbiased look at Neal (the Holy Goof and fastestmanalive) and the people who surrounded him: his family, lovers, and friends (Jack Keruoac, Ken Kesey, Allen Ginsberg, etc). It neither praises nor degrades him, presenting him merely as a remarkable man and letting you decide for yourself.

Neal Cassady was a very interesting and multi-faceted muse of the Beat writers and Kesey's Merry Pranksters, certainly an integral part of both generations. Anyone with an interest in these writers must familiarize themselves with Cassady. In this respect Plummer does an adequate job of presenting both Cassady's life and providing some background into the lives of those literary geniuses who immortalized him in their writing.
In all biographies one finds bias, it is an integral and valid part of the art. However, Plummer's bias is almost overwhelming. Constantly comparing Cassady to Chirst, lauding his virtues and beauty, Plummer creates a Cassady that becomes unbelieveable to the reader. Instead of getting to know an amazing man, one finds oneself reading a hero story, the immaculate life of Plummer's Cassady. Even Kerouac, in his works, presents a more balanced view of Neal, whom he loved as his best friend for years.
It is well written and is a decent read but if you are familiar with Cassady's life, you find your self reading a book about Willam Plummer, if you are unfamiliar you find your self reading a story about a man as realistic as Captian America.
There is so much more written on the man, and most is far superior. Read it if you must but you could do better. If adoration of Cassady is what you're looking for, read "Howl" or "On The Road" or "Visions of Cody" or even Cassady's own post-humously published autobiography "The First Third" (especially his letters) and get some great literature under your belt at the same time.