1957-1969 selections desolation anniversary

books:

25 reviews
Jack Kerouac

Viking Adult, 2007

In a Class by Itself
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 ...

On the Road (Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century)

623 reviews
Jack Kerouac

Penguin (Non-Classics), 1999

The Day After Superman Died
I began this book with weary thoughts, suspecting some Beatles, hippie mumbo jumbo about life, love and drugs. I was right but also dead wrong. After reading it I can fully understand why this is thought of as the definitive read from the beat generation. It's basically a crazed story on life on the road, of two friends who for a brief period becomes soul mates and experiences the real world ...

The Americans

26 reviews

Steidl/National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2008

The definitive "The Americans"
We're lucky to have this edition. Robert Frank is an old man with health issues now. That he is healthy enough to oversee this work is wonderful. Everything about this edition - especially in comparison to the 2007 Delpine edition I purchased earlier this year - is first-rate. I wish I had known this was coming out! The book is a little smaller than the Delpine, but that's the only real ...

On the Road (Penguin Classics)

38 reviews
Jack Kerouac

Penguin Classics, 2002

So that is what the fuss is about
Oftentimes I've heard so much about a writer's amazing talent only to be disappointed when I get around to reading his/her work. Ayn Rand falls into this category to a degree and Bukowski falls all the way into it--but not Kerouac. I don't know if Jack captured the heartbeat of a generation. I don't know if Jack motivated even one person to actually get "on the road". I do know that this is ...

Big Sur

46 reviews
Jack Kerouac

Penguin (Non-Classics), 1992

Kerouac's most honest novel.
Kerouac pulled no internal punches with this one. He's there, at his worst in many ways, but the sordid tale is beautifully told. How he makes something so depressing and painful into a work of pure beauty is almost magical. No one had ever done fiction quite like Jack Kerouac, and no one has since been able to duplicate that style, or even ape it effectively. BIG SUR is one of the top four of ...

On the Road: 50th Anniversary Edition

9 reviews
Jack Kerouac

Viking Adult, 2007

Ultimate Version of a Classic redone
Everything old is new again! I remember reading Jack Kerouac immortal novel of a road trip when I was in high school. About ten years later, I heard a Rhino record collection of Kerouac reading abridged cuts from his novel with Steve Allen (yes, author/actor/former Tonight show host) playing piano in the background. About five years later, Durkin Hayes audio had David (Kung Fu) Carradine ...

The Dharma Bums (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)

7 reviews
Jack Kerouac

Penguin Classics, 2006

In search of the eternal state of being
As Kerouac notes in the introductory chapter, he met Gary Snyder, a.k.a. Japhy Ryder in 1955, just before Snyder went off to Japan to immerse himself in Zen Buddhism. What follows is a free-wheeling account of their time together in perhaps Kerouac's most appealling and certainly most postive book. Dharma Bums is a celebration of American Buddhism, which was budding in San Francisco at the ...

Jack Kerouac: Road Novels 1957-1960: On the Road / The Dharma Bums / The Subterraneans / Tristessa / Lonesome ...

9 reviews
Jack Kerouac

Library of America, 2007

What a great collection!
Thank you Library of America for this wonderful collection. to reviewer sky, I don't think you really know Kerouac's background when you characterize him as one of the "con-men, impostors, poseurs, and talentless hacks". he was actually quite a serious - yet at the same time anguished - person; he drank himself to death because he couldn't handle the fame. amazing what one NYT review can do. ...

The Dharma Bums

150 reviews
Jack Kerouac

Penguin (Non-Classics), 1976

Back to the future
Now in 2008 I'm older then Kerouac ever became. But that's not important. When I first read the book I was nineteen, now I'm fifty nine. I still love the book and the writer and the characters. Of course Japhy and Han Shan and Ray. The search for wisdom, love, poetry, nature , living a pure life is from all times: Han Shan, Garry Schnyder, Jack Keouac in his best periode, no alcohol, no paranoia.

Desolation Angels

37 reviews
Jack Kerouac

Riverhead Books, 1995

Timid Before God
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 ...

On The Road CD

15 reviews
Jack Kerouac

Caedmon, 2004

Perfect presentation!!!
Matt Dillon's presentation was superb -- he brought the characters to life. Especially, Dean, with his slow, distant, unique way of talking ... it was like Dean was really there. I would very much recommend this audio CD to anyone who likes On the Road. Very, very well done.

Maggie Cassidy

20 reviews
Jack Kerouac

Penguin (Non-Classics), 1993

Jack's Best Kept Secret
When Kerouac was good he was superb. This is young love in a glorious, mind-bending nutshell. Beautifully written and deeply felt. When I was much younger and had experienced my first brutal betrayal in life, this novel was my greatest comfort. Kerouac had uncanny vision into the human heart, and was capable of expressing the awful paradox of young love, the joy and pain of it, it terms that ...

Tristessa

29 reviews
Jack Kerouac

Penguin (Non-Classics), 1992

Tristessa
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 ...

The Portable Jack Kerouac (Penguin Classics)

3 reviews
Jack Kerouac

Penguin Classics, 2007

WILD, WEIRD, WONDERFUL--- AND WOOLLY AND WOOZY,
GRANTED that the selections are a mishmash of Kerouac styles, and at times misuse words with a kind of tender haughtiness and screw you if you don't like it but this is what I bruit. Bruit? But at his best Kerouac time and again tells us of that railroad earth and trains rolling under October skies and rushes up our noses with piney phrases that would raise gooseflesh on Thomas Wolfe. What's ...

Visions of Cody

23 reviews
Jack Kerouac

Penguin (Non-Classics), 1993

How To Read The Tape Transcripts...
Yes, at first I thought the tape transcripts were just a lot of useless padding to fill out Jack's book. Boy, was I wrong! Here's how to read them: 1. Get a couple of Charley Parker albums (Bird and Diz will do nicely.) 2. Procure a jug of red wine and a joint. 3. Put on Bird, pour a glass of wine, and just relax with the music for a while. 4. Take a few tokes. Drink more wine. Get a ...

Kerouac: Selected Letters: Volume 2: 1957-1969

4 reviews
Jack Kerouac

Penguin (Non-Classics), 2000

Kerouac....in his own words.
First, the recommendation is to read the companion book, and predecessor, Selected Letters: 1940 - 1956, before starting this one. Both books are really two volumes of the same story. Those familiar with Kerouac's writing will recognize the characters, scenes and events from the letters as the basis for his groundbreaking novels. Via his letters, you get the unvarnished versions of the later ...

And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks
William S. Burroughs, Jack Kerouac

Grove Press, 2008

More than sixty years ago, William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac sat down inNew York City to write a novel about the summer of 1944, when one of their friends killed another in a moment of brutal and tragic bloodshed. The two authors were then at the dawn of their careers, having yet to write anything of note. Alternating chapters and narrators, Burroughs and Kerouac pieced together a hard-boiled tale of bohemian New York during World War II, ...

The Town and the City

13 reviews
Jack Kerouac

Harvest Books, 1970

Kerouac's Best
This is Jack Kerouac's first novel, written when he was in his early twenties. "On the Road" brought him fame, but I think this is one is his best. The characters are all real and complex, particualrly one of the brothers of the large Martin family named Francis, who feels society is the enemy. The book is set in a fictional town which is based upon Kerouac's hometown of Lowell, Massachusetts. ...

The Subterraneans

41 reviews
Jack Kerouac

Grove Press, 1994

A Great Work by Kerouac
The Subterraneans is a wonderfully written masterpiece. Having finished it, I can hardly bring myself to read any other author because the images are not as fresh. Kerouac paints a picture, or rather opens a window, to allow the modern reader to view what it was in the Beat generation. Written from the point of view of the author, this book gives an interesting perspective on not only his ...

Wake Up: A Life of the Buddha
Jack Kerouac

Viking Adult, 2008

An account of the life of the Buddha by the author of On the Road Though raised Catholic, in the early 1950s Jack Kerouac became fascinated with Buddhism, an interest that would have a profound impact on his ideas of spirituality and their expression in his writing from Mexico City Blues to The Dharma Bums . Published for the first time in book form, Wake Up is Kerouac’s retelling of the story of Prince Siddhartha Gautama, who as a ...

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