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Overview
In these uncollected writings Jack Kerouac portrays himself in his life. He hitches a ride to San Francisco with a blonde, goes on the road with photographer Robert Frank, rides bus through the Northwest and Montana, records the blues of an old Negro hobo, talks about the Beats and how it all began, gives his "Essentials of Spontaneous Prose" and defends his novel The Subterraneans, compares Shakespeare and James Joyce, describes the cafeterias and subways of Manhattan, goes to a ballgame and a prize fight, and reflects on Christmas in New England, on Murnau's Nosferatu, on jazz & bop, and tells us what he's thinking about.
Table of Contents
Walking to Eden Optical Terror The Impossible Genus On Returning from Chiapas Alphabets and Emperors Optical Pleasure Haunting by Water Mapping Paris The Monstrous and the Marvelous The Death Cunt of Deep Dell Sortilege Books of Nature A Dream Manifesto in Voices Acknowledgments Bibliography
Synopsis
In these uncollected writings Jack Kerouac portrays himself in his life. He hitches a ride to San Francisco with a blonde, goes on the road with photographer Robert Frank, rides bus through the Northwest and Montana, records the blues of an old Negro hobo, talks about the Beats and how it all began, gives his "Essentials of Spontaneous Prose" and defends his novel The Subterraneans, compares Shakespeare and James Joyce, describes the cafeterias and subways of Manhattan, goes to a ballgame and a prize fight, and reflects on Christmas in New England, on Murnau's Nosferatu, on jazz & bop, and tells us what he's thinking about.
Table of Contents
Walking to Eden Optical Terror The Impossible Genus On Returning from Chiapas Alphabets and Emperors Optical Pleasure Haunting by Water Mapping Paris The Monstrous and the Marvelous The Death Cunt of Deep Dell Sortilege Books of Nature A Dream Manifesto in Voices Acknowledgments Bibliography
Publishers Weekly
Kerouac was a literary pilgrim in the ``careful . . . self-conscious'' 1950s, notes Creeley; this miscellany of some 30 magazine contributions (from Playboy , Escapade and other publications) is a good complement to his better-known work such as On the Road. Five pieces describe road trips; the satisfying title tale recalls a bygone time in which a beautiful blonde model might pick up a hitchhiker packing Benzedrine. Kerouac offers observations on the Beat Generation, tying it to beatitude and lamenting its appropriation by the ``Hollywood borscht circuit.'' His advice on writing is both incisively amusing (``Try never get drunk outside yr own house'') and perhaps unhelpful to the less talented (``sketching language is . . . blowing'' like a jazz musician). Most interesting is his elegant and persuasive defense of his novel The Subterraneans in 1963 after it was banned in Italy. His 1969 reflection on the radicals of the era is startling: though critical of the ``Establishment,'' he castigates young leftists and praises the American system that allowed him to travel wherever he wanted. But some other writings, like impressionistic sketches of Manhattan and articles on baseball, are strictly for fans. (Sept.)