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Minor Characters

Name: Minor Characters
Author: Joyce Johnson
ISBN: 9780385475303

by Joyce Johnson

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Overview

Minor Characters is a vivid and compelling memoir of one woman's coming-of-age amidst the angels and poets of the Beat Generation. The friend and lover of Jack Kerouac during the two years surrounding the publication of On the Road - the book that made him suddenly and forever famous - Joyce Johnson describes with penetrating insight the circle of rebellious visionaries of which she became a part: Allen Ginsberg, Peter Orlovsky, LeRoi Jones, Gregory Corso. But more than just chronicling the drama of her life with Kerouac, Johnson describes the roles that she and other women in her circle played as companions and acolytes to their male muses, women who set aside their own needs and ambitions, for a time, even as they searched to find their own voices and shape their own lives.

For two years, during the time that On the Road established Jack Kerouac as the spokesman and guiding light of the Beat Generation, Joyce Johnson was his girlfriend. This luminous, lyrical book is the story of that time. "A loving, tender and moving testament."--People.

About the Author, Joyce Johnson

Joyce Johnson is the author of three novels, including The Night Café. Her other books include Minor Characters, which was the winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, and Door Wide Open: A Beat Love Affair in Letters, 1957–1958.

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Johnson's 1987 NBCC Award- winning memoir of the 1950s and her relationship with Kerouac and other beats features a new introduction by the author. (Oct.)