Jack Kerouac Books

There is a lot in this book to enjoy and think about. Why it wasn't included in the syllabus for Post Modernist Fiction when I took it at Columbia in the 1970's is puzzling. Why read "Ulysses" or "The Sound and the Fury," two "classics" that leave you empty and frustrated, when you could read this book and at least walk away somewhat empowered? Why read two uninteresting drunks when you can read an interesting one? Maybe Kerouac might motivate you to take over Low Library or, better yet, drop out of Columbia and get a life. There must have been some reason.

Kerouac was apparently schizophrenic and I tend to prefer the thinker to the party animal, especially now that there are more party animals than there are parties to house them. What makes Kerouac interesting, though, is the way these two aspects of his personality interacted with each other. Scorn for the status quo, popularized in the "60's", whatever on earth the "60's" connotates in God's mind, can be traced back at least to the French symbolists, was then manipulated by 20th century national socialists, then rediscovered by the Beats and finally morphed itself into its opposite (the status quo) by the hippie-yuppie-military-Madison-Avenue-God-knows-what-else establishment we are currently enslaved by... I think I've run out of sentence. Ask Dennis Hopper when he's not making a commercial for Wall Street. Anyway, Kerouac gets this insanity at some very lucid level and it sets him apart from his peers, who were less (not?) able to view themselves, or their "generation," very critically. This all helps one muster up the (courage?) to deal with the current train wreck we're witnessing, with car after car mindlessly piling up on the smoldering heap. Not that Jack didn't add much to the smoldering heap. In fact, without the schizo element, it would be hard to believe that the same could get as heavy as he does in this book.

You can mindlessly read the first section of "Desolation Angels" on Desolation Peak. Kerouac seems like a normal, oversensitive guy and the section has a nice brevity and completeness about it. His existentialism is more current than Sartre or Camus and he is a better writer in many ways. He doesn't need to fictionalize because he sees that life provides the best material, so why muddy the water with a bunch of "lies?" Kerouac's only real "lies" are his bop prosodist excursions, during which his natural writing talents are short-circuited by his need to be "cool" and mimick Joyce and the other masters of confusion and tedium. The fact that Kerouac contradicts himself philosophically and morally almost constantly throughout is not a problem: he's B-E-A-T remember, like with a stick. And you're supposed to be as wasted as he is when you cognate, so what's the problem? It only matters when his stomach suddenly starts hemorraging in 1968, and then only to him really. He's like a star NFL quarterback, easily replaced once some 350 pound goon turns him into nursing home material. In "Desolation Angels," we get to witness the end of humanity as it was once known and Kerouac takes entire centuries of thought and sensibility with him to the grave.

But, Kerouac has two things going for him: he remains lucid enough, for the most part anyway, because he is documenting "simple life," as he might describe it. And, hence, secondly, he is able to convey greater complexities because he generally avoids the rhetorical stream-of-consciousness trap. It's like a Don Johnson "Miami Vice" shoot-out scene taking place in a library, with Don protecting himself from a stray bullet with a copy of Malraux, then opening to a page and reading an excerpt. If you're not laughing at least once every page, you're not reading closely.

Personally, I'd rather read Gauguin or van Gogh because they saw it coming. The issues were the same: freedom vs. modernity. Kerouac has many of their insights, but he thinks America, the open road, and guys who don't bathe regularly are going to save him and, by the time he finds out that they're going to kill him, it's too late. Apparently, like all blue-blooded Americans, he could be a pretty mean drunk. Fortunately, succeeding generations dropped their souls like Neanderthal Man dropped his tail and, so, there is no existential problem anymore. But, as Mr. Bowie notes on "Heathen," some of us "stay behind." For him it's 1982. Why 1982, I couldn't tell you. For me, it's 1903, the the year Gauguin died. For Jack, it was probably 1957, or therabouts. Either way, this book takes you back to a space that is now nowhere to be found, only recalled with pangs.

Of all parties mentioned, only Gauguin really completed his mission, as he had the sense to get out of Western Civilization before it turned him into one of those pickling cucumbers you stare at in horror at the grocery store, as it rots before your very eyes. No, Gauguin paints some beautiful pictures of the savage life that is dying, calls Schuffenecker an "idiot" and then, fulfilled, quietly dies. For Kerouac, this option was attempted (the Buckley interview was it?), but not really possible. However, it is most likely what he needed to do to complete the Duluoz legend. Unfortunately, Lowell, MA is his idea of the tropics. Ultimately, Jack's rucksack got full of too many sins, omissions and Americanisms to get him very far, so he ends up on a Greyhound bus with Memere too drunk to make out the next stop on the bus ticket.

All of this is much easier to comprehend if you view it as classic comedy, which is something Americans were once very good at making.

Somewhere in the 409 pages of this book you'll find buried a truly great work of American literature. It is hard to fault Kerouac for his devotion to spontaneous and unedited writing; though these methods imposed limitations on what he could accomplish as a writer, they also contributed to what makes his books so fascinating. If Jack had lived in Hemingway's time, he would have submitted Desolation Angels to the publisher and would have been handed back a 300 page masterpiece.

The most problematic section is the first one, "Desolation in Solitude." I understand that Kerouac wanted to convey the sheer insanity of his isolation as a lookout, but considering that he already devoted about 30 pages to this in Dharma Bums, he essentially retreads the same mystic nonsense for another 70 pages without giving much new insight into his experience. The one interesting bit that comes out of the whole ordeal is the gradual dissatisfaction that Kerouac feels for Buddhism (which, through his interpretation, seems to fall a bit close to nihilism) and his reacceptance of Christianity.

But after this first section, things pick up and Kerouac delivers one painfully sad and and transcendentally beautiful insight after another (one of my favorites: his frustration at receiving a $3 jaywalking ticket on the way to a job, costing him half his day's pay-- but you have to read the way he puts it to understand, of couse). It is worth noting that Desolation Angels really is two different books written almost 5 years apart. The first half he wrote while in Mexico City (during events he describes in the second half, Passing Through), while the second half was written in Florida (I think) while he lived with his mother. Thus, Kerouac's interpretation of life radically shifts when you begin the 2nd half. He also suddenly becomes a lot more candid, talking about his life as a writer, his use of drugs, and the homosexuality of his peers in a lot more detail and honesty than he could manage before. It is also important to understand that "Desolation Angels" (part 1) was written BEFORE On the Road was published, while "Passing Through" (part 2) was written AFTER. His sudden brush with fame can probably account for this shift in perspective.

I don't want to go into too much detail about the multitude of spiritual revelations within the book, as its better to hear it out of the mouth of the mystic. Reading the book, one can't help but notice that Kerouac, even when past his literary and spiritual peak, was not the embittered and impotent wreck that he's usually considered-- not based on his touching insights in "Passing Through." He clearly has a lot of faith in humanity, and of the necessity that people act out of love and respect rather than hate and fear. Many critics quickly dismiss Desolation Angels as a "lesser work," but I think that if you're willing the persist through the dense opening section, the rewards are nearly as profound as those of his more famous novels.

I read this book while travelling in India. I was amazed and touched. I haven't thought that Kerouac could write any better or even at the level of Onthe Road and The Subterraneans, I was wrong. If you like Keorouac, not to say a fan, buy this book.

Jack Kerouac's 'Desolation Angels', written about a period of his life roughly 10 years before his death, acts as a nice bridge between 'On The Road' (which was awaiting publication during the course of events described in "Angels") and a subsequent publication, Big Sur, both of which I've read.

During his two month self-imposed exile to work as a fire ranger on Desolation Peak, Jack Kerouac was forced to confront many of his pre-existing or emerging demons. The location for this period of his life is especially apropos for the 'desolation' surrounding Kerouac, much of which was self-created, as he sank further into depression and alcoholism.

The book covers more of his life than just the two months on Desolation Peak, but as Jack re-emerges into society, you get the sense that this 'loner' was only comfortable being 'alone' amongst others...that while he could see, smell, and wander amongst others, and feel tolerably 'isolated'...he could not stand the true isolation he could achieve, to remove himself from society altogether.

Jack wanders from the American Northwest to Florida, to Mexico, to Tangiers, to California with his mother in tow, and eventually back to Florida, when his mother grows further depressed with their cross-country move after only a month.

Many players from Kerouac's former novels appear in this one as well, albeit with different names...the poet 'Gregory Corso,' to whom Kerouac lost 'Mardou Fox' in "Subterraneans" is called 'Raphael Urso' in "Angels"...'Dean Moriarty,' from "On The Road" is 'Cody' in this incarnation.

Kerouac's detachment from the Beat Generation, his status as their reigning 'king', his fame, and his Buddhist beliefs all come into focus during this novel, one of his finest, in my opinion. If you rode shotgun with Kerouac for On The Road, explore his life further, and you will uncover far more about this dark, troubled, but fascinating author.

Kerouac at his best. Like the former reviewer, I agree that it times it can be thorny. However, if you take these "lull" moments for what they really are, you will see that much can be gained from reading them and not taking them as another Kerouac run-on. This novel, which I read third in the sequence of On the Road, Dharma Bums, and then Desolation Angels picks up nicely from the conclusion of Bums, and provides a great trilogy for those getting into Jack. Perfect character descriptions, encounters with his fellow beats, and the absolute wallowing of Kerouac into his Self...this being the best part of the novel, which the other two lacked. 5 Stars. Take your time with it, this is a beautiful piece of work.

In Tristessa, Kerouac writes about his time on the road in Mexico City. The book is broken down into two parts, a year apart. It is a sort of love poem to Tristessa, the morphine addicted prostitute that he is in love with.

In true Kerouac fashion we once again live vicariously through his vivid writing of his experience on the road. His ability to bring the reader right into the middle of his world is the reason I keep coming back to him again and again.

Jack Kerouac describes his low-budget meanderings within the slums of the Prostitution and Drug Culture in 1950's Mexico City. His descriptions of the hovels that his "compadres" live in, is quite engrossing... it reminds me somewhat of the activities in the neighborhoods of modern-day Tijuana (short all the pets and chickens and so-forth)... I wouldn't recommend anyone attempt these same "feats" in modern-day Mexico City, as it has become a much more dangerous place for tourists over the last 50 years.

The fact that Kerouac is able to travel and live among the bohemian under-culture is one thing, but that he is able to describe it with his running dialog style on a typewriter is quite unique (a style that is something close to what I'd independently come up with at 14 in 1973, while capturing a dialog between a good friend and my sister on my Mom's old manual typewriter).

I can`t really review the whole book yet as I`m only on page 16, but so far this book is thick, and dripping in poetry. Kerouac is genius, unmistakable. I should have read this sooner--by page 16 it`s already more highly beautiful then 1000 other books combined. I`ll read the rest of it and write more later--Hopefully it`s more of the same

Tristessa by Jack Kerouac *****

Tristessa may just be the best thing Kerouac ever wrote. Yes I know On The Road was, and still is one of the greatest and most important books of all time, but I must say I don't think Kerouac ever felt what he wrote as much as he did when he wrote Tristessa. You can feel his heart aching in the literature, something that is very, very rare to find, but very rewarding when you do.

Tristessa follows a man in Mexico City, Mexico who is completely infatuated with a women named Tristessa who is a junky, to say the least. This tortured story follows these two along with a revolving door of assorted men, and her fellow girlfriends over the course of about a year and a half. These two love each other but the narrator can't bring himself to give into her because of her addictions and flighty ways, but he also is conflicted and can't leave her in this condition because he really does love her so, and her him.

This is a gut wrenching tail of love, loss, and not being able to let go. If this is not the most prolific thing Kerouac ever wrote it sure is close, and wins my pick for his best.

Many readers who love Kerouac consider "Tristessa" one of his finest novels. "Tristessa" has become the book of Kerouac that I return to most often. The book was initially rejected for publication, and it first appeared in paperback in 1960 following the success of "On the Road". The book initially may have been conceived as part of "On the Road." "Tristessa" is written in Kerouac's "spontaneous prose" style, with long rhythmic improvisational sentences and the feel of jazz. It is short, but deceptively complex, introspective, romantic, and sad. When I first read the book, I was taken by the descriptive passages and didn't pay much attention to the progression of the story. In my most recent reading, I got more from the story itself.

"Tristessa" consists of two short parts, each of which tells the story of the first-person narrator, Jack, as he makes two visits to Mexico City separated by about a year. Jack is in love with a morphine-ridden prostitute named Tristessa. In part 1 of the book, "Trembling and Chaste" we see the ambiguous relationship between Jack and Tristessa. The reader meets Tristessa in her shabby room, surrounded by other addicts, including her supplier, a man named El Indio, and by cats, dogs, chickens,and by a crucifix over her bed. Jack is with her, but he leaves and takes the reader on a tour through the underside of Mexico City, rife with poverty, drugs, and prostitutes. The scenes with Tristessa are interlaced with discussions of suffering, religion and Buddhism. Jack is in love with Tristessa, but he has taken a vow of sexual chastity which he reluctantly tries to honor. Tristessa appears to be in love with Jack.

In the year that intervenes between the two parts of the novel, Jack works
in a fire tower in the Northwest -- this story is told in Kerouac's "The Dharma Bums." When he returns to Mexico City as narrated in part 2 of the book, Tristessa's life has deteriorated as she has become more hopelessly addicted. Kerouac's friend Old Bull Gaines (William Burroughs) is also in love with Tristessa as is her supplier of drugs, El Indio. Jack tries to rescue Tristessa from injury,overdose and possible death as he stays with her through the streets of Mexico City and tries to find her a home. He loses her to Gaines and realizes the impossibility of their relationship -- which, in the published text, remains unconsummated. At the close of the book, Jack dreams of writing "long sad tales about people in the legend of my life... This part is my part of the movie". And he invites the reader "let's hear yours."

"Tristessa" is a short, highly personal, and deeply moving novel. Kerouac told the story of his own troubled life in a series of novels that have stayed with me. Every person has their own story, albeit not necessarily that of the beats. Kerouac has told his, and he has challenged the reader to understand and to respond with sympathy and joy to his or her own story: "lets hear yours."

Robin Friedman

Captured moments of Amercian Life, often shown here with an American flag in the photo. These images in this book portray a visual artist who is creating photos by shifting angles, waiting for the right moment, using light in a different way. Its tough to describe this book other than to say that it was edited pretty well.

This book is the real thing, it should be part of any collection of outstanding photography books. Robert Frank shoots beautifully and unselfconciously, this is exemplary photojournalism that takes a viewer into the deep waters of the truly gifted.

I've been a professional photographer, still in love with photography after 40 years shooting, still shooting every day. Thank you Robert Frank. You've had a vision that is the best photography book ever done, I wish I could do it!!!!

Si os gusta la fotografía de reportaje compradlo sin reservas.
No tiene desperdicio, ojalá encuentro más libros de fotógrafos como Robert Frank.
Muy bueno.
Un saludo desde España a todos los hispanos.

This is a wonderful monograph of Frank's early work, presented in a highly innovative sequence of images based loosly on formal and thematic topics. The book's meaning grows and changes with every read. Although it is hailed as a seminal work of progressive street photography now, it was not so warmly received in its postwar days. For instance, in 1960 a critic for Popular Photography called it, "A sad poem for a sick people." However, Frank maintained an aloof political stance and managed to escape McCarthyism's career-ending scrutiny, unlike many of his coleagues.
If you like this book, you might enjoy Walker Evans' "American Photographs" and Tod Papageorge's comparison of the two photo-books. Also see Frank's later works, as seen in the retrospective "The Lines of My Hand" and such extensive exhibition catalogues as "Hold Still-Keep Going" and "Moving Out." Frank's later body of work reveals a preoccupation with the passage of time, perhaps inspired by his 40+ years in film. These photos also bear negative scratching, collage, over-painting, and the deliberate addition of text--all of which vastly different from his Americans-era images. Although these photographic accomplishments, stunning in their own right, have been ignored by scholarship for some time, the 1990s establishment of the Robert Frank Collection at the National Gallery promises to preserve as well as present Frank's later works in a new and interesting light.

Also:
Dear Benjamin,

Per your inquiry, Robert Frank's book was published in Switzerland because the photographer is SWISS. Scalo has made an effort to publish most of Frank's books in his home country, as well as the US, England, France, Canada (where he lives now), etc. Frank emigrated to the US in 1947 and became an American citizen in 1963. Knowing these simple facts might help you examine this work with renewed clarity. Also, people in Switzerland enjoy books just as much as Americans. Perhaps you should conduct some research every now and again, it might make you look less ignorant.

This is the perfect companion to Jack Kerouac's classic novel, offering a wealth of information, fascinating stories, and gorgeous photographs about the world chronicled in that novel's pages. But it offers so much more -- a richer understanding of Gary Snyder & Philip Whalen, as well as their poetic work, and an in-depth look at the times & experiences that shaped all three writers. There are countless books about the Beats, many of them quite good indeed ... but this is surely one of the best. The author truly knows & loves his subjects, without being blinded by any need for glossy hagiography. It's as honest a book as you'll find about these three remarkable men & their times. A very enthusiastic recommendation!

In his first book, John Suiter has produced a work that contributes significantly to the literature on early development of the Beat literary movement and to understanding the disparate characters of Snyder, Whalen, and Kerouac. Using the common experience of all three men serving as fire lookouts in the Northern Cascades in the early to mid 1950's, the author evokes portraits of how each writer was influenced by wilderness and the isolation of a fire lookout, and how each used the experience in his work. Drawing from recent interviews with Snyder and Whalen and others who knew them during the early 1950's, from previously unpublished letters and journals, and from extensive close readings of all three writers, the author crafts a portrait of the evolution of a literary movement, of a wilderness ethic, and perhaps unintentionally, the devolution of Kerouac contrasted against the focus and dedication of Snyder and Whalen. The book is illustrated with photographs of the fire lookouts and their locales.

John Suiter's work on the founding fathers of Beat poetry and prose is a marvelous read. Suiter takes us along the trail through post war America and ties together the Beat poets, Jack Kerouac, McCarthyism, San Francisco and the North Cascades Forest Service Fire Lookout system of the 1950's. Imagine the poet/Zen Buddhist Gary Snyder being blacklisted from working for the Forest Service! Do you want to know how Jack Kerouac got the idea for his Dharma Bums work? What was it like spending a month and a half completely alone on top of a mountain in the Pacific Northwest, looking for the telltale smoke of a developing forest fire? Do you know what a "lightning stool" is, what you do with it and would you like to see a photograph of one? What was it like being at the famous Six Gallery poetry reading in 1955 when Allen Ginsberg first read "Howl"? If these questions interest you, or if you want to know about the origins of Beat writings-this is the book to get. Author Suiter launches the reader away through Old Mexico to visit with young Robert Mitchum as Christ in a glass coffin and William "Junky" Burroughs, up through Yosemite to camp with Kerouac and Snyder, a stop in San Francisco at City Lights Bookstore and Lawrence Ferlinghetti and finally Japan and Hozomeen, and the Void from Desolation. A delightful Masterpiece of fact and photographs!

"Poets on the Peaks" by John Suiter is a beautiful and insightful book. The text and pictures hold your hand through wonderful reminiscing with and about some of the greatest poets of our time. The landscapes that inspired the poetry that Gary Snyder, Philip Whalen and Jack Kerouac are famous for is staged perfectly throughout the book. It gives you a sense of time and place that makes you feel as if you were in those look out towers and you experienced that electric and quiet time. Learn, escape, and love with this book. It is well worth it!

Writer-photographer Suiter provides a literary portrait of Beat era poets Gary Snyder, Philip Whalen, and Jack Kerouac in Poets On The Peaks, which centers around their early experiences as fire lookouts in the 1950s. As such, Poets On The Peaks provides a hard book to easily categorize: it covers beautiful Cascade Mountain scenes and peaks, fire lookouts, and literature and biography alike. The writings of these three juxtapose nicely with the photos and images, making this a recommended gift choice for the holiday season.

I first read Kerouac when I was a teenager in Hopatcong High School in Hopatcong, NJ. My father had gotten me The Dharma Bums for one of my early teen birthdays, possibly fourteen but I am not really sure now. Well I was taken on this new style of writing that I up to that point had never seen before. I read a few more of his books but it wasn't until I left NJ on a bus heading for Denver, CO on February the 13th, 1996 that Kerouac changed my life. Before this I was trying to learn how to write with little to no success but then it all changed for me. I got what was to be my very last slice of NY pizza being I am now a diabetic and I saw some street peddler selling "On the Road" by Kerouac. I bought it and devoured it with someone else I met on the trip all the way to St. Louis ,MO.

I was in fact reading the same trip Jack took all those years ago and now I come to the "Book of Sketches." I have always liked jacks poetry and this is a great example of vigilance to write. All of these came from a notebook he carried around where ever he went. I used to be that vigilant when I was homeless so I understand where he is comming from. Anyone that likes Jack or poetry should read this amazing book. I emplore you to, and you will not be dissapointed I promise.

At first you may not take this book seriously...ANOTHER "new" book by Jack Kerouac...released so that Kerouac lovers (like me) HAVE to buy it no matter how useless it might be; but then you start reading it...and it starts to get interesting...more and more interesting...Kerouac revealing incredible thoughts, brutally honest about himself, women and their body parts, America itself... the whole book is over 400 pages...and by the time you get to page 172 or so...you begin to realize...THIS BOOK IS GREAT...and then after that it doesn't let you down...it continues to be GREAT. FYI, the majority of "Sketches" was written between The Town And The City and On The Road. I absolutely give this book my highest recommendation.

I know this was an accumulation of Kerouac's observations from the early 1950's until 1957 written in little notebooks...writings that capture the detail of the world (mostly America) as he mentally photographed it and transcribed it ( as a writer's exercise or batting practice)...and I know that he took all these observations and typed them up as a manuscript titled book of sketches...But upon reading this...this stands as the greatest poem ever written about America...

>
Sketches of `Sketches'

Jack Kerouac's 'Book of Sketches' is beautifully
descriptive - I want to keep quoting passages
for you.... Kerouac sees & then meditates on
what he sees but all in an instant while watching
it.

Incredibly perceptive, Jack puts into words
what you suspected yourself but hadn't noted.
He invents words & re-spells words all the time
when he sees the limitations of language. If
somebody says something to him in a local
accent he spells it the same as the person says
it, not original among writers it's true, but a
a mark of Kerouac's accurate honesty to the
subject. And this conveys the full feeling of
the moment to us without it being distorted by
convention.

Most women wouldn't like this book (as generally
women don't like Kerouac's writing). Women
like plot and a dialog, you'll find neither of
those here.

Kerouac, more than any other writer I know, is
a pleasure to read. Someone once said he had
a hypnotic quality and true enough reading Book
of Sketches in bed - it's one book I don't want
to leave my bed for, for the bathroom.

Jack has learned the immediacy of writing "on the
job" - actually describing the scene as you see it -
so that descriptions of everyday street life appear
vivid.
But Kerouac goes further his thoughts melt with
what he see's so that as the great Scottish Beat
James Morton say's it becomes a journey of the
mind.

Physically a chunky little book, printed on that
sort of imitation old parchment with ragged
edges. Jack types out the lines short like American
poetry, which reads like prose, (unlike Jack's prose
which reads like poetry) - so it can be assimilated
in bite-sized chunks. A deceptively small book
though, Kerouac fans will be delighted to know
that there's a lot of text in there - I found it a long
read that went right to the back of the mind.
So, a far longer book than it's appearance would
suggest. I would say it will take two days solid
reading to get through it (that's if you're going
to take it all in).

Jack's thought is so natural you can often read the
last line of a passage and `know' the theme of the
previous lines.

The truth is we see nothing without feeling an
attendant emotion. Kerouac's genius is in noting
the emotion with the observation, but his economy
with language is such that where with most
writers this would slow the passage down with
Kerouac it's just a glimpse and the text rolls on
un-interrupted.
But I think I've said that already, so I'd better
wrap this small review up...

The piece that sticks in my mind is the description
of the sunken boat with the seagulls sheltering in it
(about 2/3 of the way through), probably because I
come from the seaside.

The nearest comparison I can think of to Kerouac
when he's in this descriptive mood is the writing
of Katherine Mansfield. Jack may be the last
great writer because in this day of television, and
instant visual art through computers and eight
screen cinemas, no one these days is immersed in
books for their fantasies the way they were pre-
the nineteen sixties. Therefore nobody develops
the ability to write the way they did back when.

I should think Kerouac kept a diary back in 1953
at the height of his writing powers - and this is it.

Hail, Oh genius!

In the Kerouac canon Book of Sketches is as
important and artistic a book as Dr.Sax.

After completing his scroll version of On the Road in April 1951, Kerouac was still unsatisfied and wanted to break away from its "conventional narrative survey of road trips etc." In October his architect student friend Ed White suggested to Jack: "Why don't you just sketch in the streets like a painter but with words?" Kerouac tried it, and was gripped by the power of the new technique which lent a new form of spontaneity to his writing. He began straight away, enthusiastically rewriting his Road book in this new fashion. The first 36 pages of Visions of Cody are pure sketches, recorded in the streets, subways and diners of New York in the fall of 1951. This new publication, Book of Sketches, contains over 400 more pages of sketches, typed up by Jack in 1959 from the original small breast-pocket notebooks in which they were recorded. They begin with sketches of life at his sister's home in Rocky Mount, North Carolina in August 1952, just after Jack had returned there from Mexico City where he had completed work on Doctor Sax. Jack describes his work on the North Carolina railroad just before taking off on the road once more on a mammoth hitch-hike to California, via Denver, and the new Cassady home in San Jose. Then follow sketches of Mexico from December 1952, and one on an airplane flying from St Louis to New York, a previously unknown trip taking Jack back home in time for Christmas.

In the following year Jack sketched while on a visit to Montreal in March 1953, and during his railroad work at San Luis Obispo, California that April, before taking off by sea for New York and a meeting with "Mardou" during the summer of the Subterraneans. Sketches of Jack's work on the Long Island railroad in October are also included , as well as more descriptions of the streets of Manhattan and Long Island that fall. The book comes to a close with a glimpse of life in San Francisco in early 1954, and tagged onto the end are a few sketches recorded during Jack's big overseas trip of Spring 1957, to Tangiers, France, and England.

The writing is superb throughout, and particularly the description of what must have been Kerouac's longest ever hitch-hike, 3000 miles from North Carolina to California in late August 1952, via Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, Utah, and Nevada, a trip not previously mentioned in his other writings. Jack lists each town he passed through and describes practically every lift he obtained on the way. Reaching Denver, Jack spent a whole day sketching Neal's old haunts, including Zaza's barbershop, the Glenarm poolhall, and Pederson's. But as well as sketching the scenes before him, Kerouac also explored philosophical topics, such as his Spengler-inspired sympathy with the Fellaheen, in his "Notes on the Millennium of the Hip Fellaheen, Oct. 1952, California" and planned his future with them -- "Go among the People, the Fellaheen not the American Bourgeois Middle-class World of neurosis nor the Catholic French Canadian European World -- the People -- Indians, Arabs, the Fellaheen in country, village, of City slums -- an essential World Dostoevsky."

This has to be one of the most important pieces of Kerouac's writing to have been released in several decades. As well as providing further examples of Kerouac's innovative sketch-writing, it also fills some gaps in the Duluoz Legend. It will become an essential part of the Kerouac canon. The marketing of the book raises some queries, however, since it is described on the back cover as a collection of "poems" and is published in the Penguin Poets series. Kerouac always seemed quite clear that his sketches were not poems but prose. In his definition of a sketch (in Some of the Dharma) he notes that "A sketch is a prose description of a scene before the eyes," and on the title page of his typescript wrote: "Book of Sketches -- Proving that sketches ain't verse." It is clear, though, that sketching led to Kerouac's development of the spontaneous poems he called Blues, which he began in 1954 with San Francisco Blues, continuing with his classic Mexico City Blues the following year. Whatever, it's the content of the book that matters, and this is quite simply outstanding, and essential for any Kerouac enthusiast.

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.

An outstanding review of the influence of the "beats" on America and how success ultimately crushed Jack Kerouac. It gives a fascinating glimpse into the stories behind the novels that Kerouac published. A definate must read for any fan of the "beats" or historian.

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!

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).

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.

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 has full access to archives,Sampas controlled estate,in Lowell, MA.

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-hip irony made it impossible to get excited about anything. KEROUAC LIVES!

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 first volume contributed to a new understanding of Kerouac and his work: this volume also includes the same attention to notes and detail, furthering her goal of presenting his life via his writings.

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 reveals the relationships that Jack had with the other Beat Poets among other people. I recommend this book to all interested in Kerouac and the Beat Generation.

Much has been made about Kerouac's philosophy of spontaneous prose. The immediacy of it's impact. It's flawed honesty. The sheer weight of his all-too-real emotion as it flowed out of him and stained the page. Like Van Gogh, Kerouac was an artist who did not concern himself with "sentimental melancholy" but looked to express the true sorrow and joy of his life in his works. These letters are a vital piece of the Kerouac puzzle, fore they show us the genesis of the man's method and style. From his early emulation of novelist Thomas Wolfe, through his meeting of first Allan Ginsburg, who was really more of an intellectual influence than a literary one, and subequently, William Burroughs, and Neal Cassady. It was Cassady's influence that was paramount to Kerouac's creation of his style, and in his letters to Neal, we are shown first hand how Jack sought to withold nothing, to seek out the details of living. These letters are startling in their honesty and emotion. They reveal a man who sought not only a vision of and for himself, but for the rest of us living, dead, and unborn. Maybe he was uncomfortable in his own skin, maybe he couldn't cut the apron strings that bound and stunted him emotionally to his mother, but these letters prove the essentialness of the artist in this world. Those souls like Kerouac who sought to express the unknown, that the reasons for why we all go on living in this world where "all life is suffering," outweigh the reasons why we should just give up and not live at all. Jack may have suffered too much, smoked too much, and drank himself to an early, lonesome grave, but he left behind works of beauty and sadness that changed the landscape of modern literature, whose directionless direction sought the innocent, lost heart in many of us. Like Jack said, one must "live, travel, adventure, bless and don't be sorry."

A fantastic gorp into Kerouac and his 'real' life and the many spontaneous voices that make his dreams. As you read these letters listen to the different tones he gives to those most important in his life ... Sabastian Sampas (boyhood best friend), Gabriella Kerouac (anchor Mom), Allen Ginsberg (understanding friend), William S. Burroughs (adventure friend), Neil Cassady (challenging boyfriend), Stella Sampas (wife subsequently), Carolyn Cassady (complicated :). It is all here! Jack's words bring up the truth about questions that still are not answered today as we go to the 'world of tomorrow'. Buy this to hear it direct from Jack.

If one wants to dig deep into kerouac then this is how. Everything begins to form from reading this. You find Jack inside yourself screaming to come out. You hear his voice and feel his every tear, smile, and high that he has felt. I recommend this to anyone who wants to take a risk in believing in someone with different views then we have today.

Having read most all of Kerouac's published work, reading this book is like finding the keys to the locks. Jack's and other letters provide deep insights into his life, his feelings and all that followed into Jack's novels, poems and stories. Much more than a diary, this book serves almost as reference material for reading his other works. The letters pre-On The Road and post-Big Sur, opens up your eyes to the life he was leading, it is here that you see the fluid motion of his life falling into his work. A must have for any JK bookshelve.

This is a tiny book considering the format but unlimited in its content. I absolutely love it! I have been on a spiritual quest for some time and this book sums up beautifuly what I found to be the Truth. I had glimpses which leave me beyond any doubt that nothing ever happened and I have no trouble with Kerouac's own sutra. He grasped the kernel of the teaching in a creative and inspiring way.

This little book is shining bright and it is a reliable guidance into the splendor of your own being. It basicaly restates what The Heart Sutra says: form is emptiness and emptiness is form. You can't reason about/with it but in the depth of your heart you'll know that it is so.

Those who are meant to read this gem of a book will find it even if it doesn't show up as a first item on the search list. If it calls you, get it! Someone recommended it to me and it arrived with perfect timing. I am grateful. Kerouac's work confirmed that my search is over, now I can only aspire to live this wisdom until the yearning itself dies or is fullfiled. God bless.

beautifully written, these spiritual meditations are some of kerouac's best and most humble, opening up the quiet side of kerouac often overlooked, simply amazing

_When I first read this little book I thought that it was primarily Buddhist in essence. When I read it again a while later, I said,no, the spirit of this book is definately Taoist. When I read it next I said, this is a true Gnostic creation- who but a gnostic would have the audacity to compose an original scripture? Of course I was right all along, for this book cuts to the mystic heart of all true paths. This is the teaching that we are all one, for we are all emanations of the one Source, call it the Golden Eternity, the Tao, Spirit, or Self. It could be the "dazzling darkness" of Dionysis. It is the core truth of the one appearing as many that it may come to know itself. This was the unnamed IT that the beats were waiting for, it is the perennial lesson for all true mystics.

_Oh yes, the book is a small one. perfect books are often like that- take a look at the Tao te Ching....

_A man that can write a book like this doesn't have to hang around this old world too long- he's already paid his dues and learned his lessons. Like Lao Tze it is time to depart, for your work is done, and the decline of the country is painful and tiring to witness....

"The Scripture of the Golden Eternity," by Jack Kerouac, is one of those books that you should read, then put aside and out of sight, and pick up and read again several months later (that's what I did). The "Scripture" consists of a series of numbered, meditation-like prose poems that explore the concept of the Golden Eternity. The City Lights edition contains both a 1970 introduction by Eric Mottram and a 1994 introduction by Anne Waldeman. According to the publication data page, the Scripture itself was first published in 1960 (although the introductions note that it was composed earlier, in 1956).

The Golden Eternity is an enigmatic concept that seems to transcend rational thought; it reminded me somewhat of the Tao. Kerouac uses many paradoxical statements to explore the Golden Eternity; his writing is sometimes funny. He also plays with words, using such terms as "the universal Thisness" and "the everlasting So." He even incorporates geometric symbols into one section of the Scripture.

Throughout are a multicultural constellation of references that give the Scripture a universalistic flavor. Buddha, Jesus, Shakespeare, Krishna, Kali, Einstein, and the Native American deity Coyote are just a few of the many references. He also finds insights in a butterfly, cats, and "your little finger."

Kerouac writes, "When you've understood this scripture, throw it / away. If you cant understand this scripture, / throw it away. I insist on your freedom." But whether you throw the book away, treasure it, or pass it on, chack out Kerouac's wonderfully written "Scripture."

of course anyone who lives in new york city can tell you where the white horse and cedar tavern are, but do they all know that where sam goody now stands on sixth avenue and ninth street is the very same place that the cafeteria kerouac wrote about extensively in visions of cody once stood?

this book is filled with a lot of well-known and plenty of not so well known places where various members of the beat generation ate, performed, lived, got drunk in, or otherwise played out their lives. the tours are broken down by area and there are clear directions to help you find where you're going (even if the place no longer exists). each tour also begins with a street map of the area covered and clearly numbered destinations, which was very helpful, although i did wish that the book had also come with an overview map of all manhattan and destinations so that i could more easily combine tours or skip around to places of interest if i didn't want to follow a complete tour.

each stopping place in the tour book includes a paragraph or two on why the place is important to beat history and who/what occured there. although the title of the book claims that new york was "jack kerouac's city," the tours really include many of the other important beat figures as well as a few others that were influenced by the beat movement, such as bob dylan.

this is a great way for beat aficionados visiting new york to get a taste of the city, and a fun way for locals to spend an afternoon or two discovering new spots and seeing familiar places in a new light.

Having moved to New York not long ago, I've been devouring the history and architecture of the city. This book blends the best of both, adding a third party to the mix -- literature. Dividing the city -- mostly Manhattan -- into eight two-hour walking tours, this guidebook offers literary references, beat-gen biographical information, and urban commentary in a useful, insightful style. The book is due an update -- the Gotham Book Mart has moved and several once-vacant lots are no longer undeveloped -- but this book has made for several wonderful walking weekends, and I know I'll retrace my steps in the future.

It would be next to impossible to find these places on your own. Even more impossible to learn as much about each of the sites as is presented in this guide. Each tour follows a logical route and there are plenty of stops that you probably never would have thought of--eg. Serpico's apartment, the former site of Thomas Wolfe's East 8th St. apartment. Using this guide is a great way to see the Village, East and West. And the insight will keep you reading even as you're moving to the next stop. Take your time. Spread the tours over a couple of afternoons. And linger for a while in Washington Square.

A great companion to this book is "The Beat Generation in New York." I wouldn't recommend carrying this heavy book around with you, but after you've finished the tours, open the book to look at the pictures taken at many of the places you've just visited.