For anyone interested in the lives behind the novels and poems of the Beats, Joyce Johnson offers a priceless glimpse at the realities of a world most of us can only imagine. Delineating a love affair that was short but tremendously influential on both of them, Johnson reveals something of her own personal growth during a time when being a young woman on her own was an act of rebellion in itself, as well as the impact of sudden fame and fortune on Jack Kerouac's already fragile psyche. Although the insensitivity to Johnson that shows through in Kerouac's letters to her will come as no surprise to those who are already familiar with his personality, his letters do feature a rare directness with one who knew him well. If his carelessness with money and women and his blind devotion to his mother remain as striking as ever, both his letters and Johnson's interpretation of them give us something of a better understanding of how these characteristics came into being.

Along the way, there are images aplenty of the stage the affair played out on: beatnik parties, Village pubs and restaurants, jazz concerts, and New York suburbs back when they were distinguishable from the city itself. Other important figures, notably Allen Ginsberg, appear throughout the text in candid shots we would never find in their own work. Johnson discusses them all in the style of one who knew them personally. For this reason among others, this book is not a very good starting point for learning about the Beat Generation, but it is an excellent complimentary piece for anyone who already has some familiarity with and interest in that era.

Beautiful and elegant. Any woman who's ever been in love with a difficult man will appreciate Joyce Johnson's bittersweet romance.

early AM, just finished Jerce's book...lovely, thoughtful and sensitive, this is a must for all lovers of Jack! Carpe Diem!!

Of the two best-known Kerouac biographies -- the other being Ann Charters' -- Memory Babe is by far the more scholarly. Challenging and difficult, Gerald Nicosia's Memory Babe still entertains. Memory Babe is a treasure-trove, but not for the light reader.

I have read alot of biographies on Kerouac, but this one doesnt even compare to the rest. This book is full of details. I mean, minute details, with input and interviews from obscure people (as well as the prominent) in Jack's life. Buy it, read it, be moved!

I've read pretty much everything on Kerouac and the Beats ever written for several years. This is by far the best bio. His whole life is covered in the utmost detail..Good work Gerald Nicosia!

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This is by far Kerouac's most enlightening book. He expresses his deep emotion of the Buddhist culture. Satori comes only when the main character follows the Path of Enlightenment and the Four Noble Truths of Tibetian Buddhism. a must read for any Kerouac fan or anyone who wants to share the experience of Eastern wisdom and thought.

"Satori in Paris" explores a trip to France by Mr. Kerouac. In it we vist many of the interesting people and places that Jack runs into during his odyssey of sorts of self exploration. If memory serves me right I think this may have been his last novel published. Like many of his other great works "Satori" perfectly captures the vibe and feel of the pre-sixties, pre-Vietnam era beat generation.

This book provides the reader with the best chance of
exploring the roots of Kerouac's spitituality. Far too
often the beats are viewed as a bunch of intellectual
hedonists whose love for verse was equalled only
by their indulgence in the various permetations of
chemical abuse. The beats set the stage for the 60's,
and America's search for a true a national spirituality.
As "King of the Beats", Kerouac takes the reader into an
in depth analysis of what lay at the very heart of the

beat movement-the journey is the reward in and of itself.

This book of jazz poems inspired me along with Charlie Parker's music to paint a painting with 242 11"x14" canvasses-one for each chorus-each canvas uses the same four elements(black caligraphy from an early hard cover edition, white from the cover's background, a red circle for beat poetry and a blue circle for jazz) yet each is different the way a jazz musician improvises on a melody line. A must read for all lovers of the Beats and Jack in particular.

Jack Kerouac wanted to be known as a jazz poet and with this poem he proves that he is. Mexico City Blues is one of my favorite Kerouac books and a lot of fun to read.

The 242 Choruses are free-spirited and spontaneous, almost like they've been written just before you turn the page. If you've read and enjoyed "On the Road" or "The Dharma Bums" pick this one up and enjoy.

A little Miles Davis, John Coltrane, or Charlie Parker playing in the background will add a whole new dimension. Sweet.

"..Fifty pesos
3 Cheers Forever
It's beautiful to be comfortable
Nirvana here I am.."

Mexico City Blues shocked and moved me. The freedom with which Kerouac takes his writing, inventing words and splattering images, envys me as an aspiring poet. I have tried to imitate his style but finally realized that only Jack can write like Jack. The poems contained on these pages are some of the greatest I have ever read and reading them is like slowly devouring an entire banquet.

This is one of Kerouac's more interesting titles. It is a bit hard to follow at times and one must almost read it aloud in parts to understand the thought. He used nouns as adjectives, ones you wouldn't expect. This can be disorienting, but when read aloud the rhythm comes alive and Kerouac's intended voice can be heard. It deserves more than three stars, but it can seem overwhelming at times so I dock it points for that.

Jacks Dr Sax represents his thoughts,feelings and fantasies throughout his early years in Lowell. Masterfully told through pre-birth, present tense and future tense, Dr Sax weaves a tangled web of delight to those who take the plunge into the River called Kerouac. The chapter "The Night The Man With The Watermelon Died" is worth the price of admission alone. Thank God for Kerouac a good companion throughout lifes troubled waters.

This book is Keroauc sitting in on a mean late night
jazz jam session, writing and reciting verse while all
those around him are blowing madly. It is very
different from the mainstream Keroauc where he
talks about writing in this style. This book is the
style as it spins a story in and out of the rhealm of
the waking consciousness and reminds me of the way I
feel like after listening to some classic Miles.
Read this book and let in linger in your mind for a
while, it has that kind of depth to it.

The Town And The City tracks the lives of the Martin family (5 sons and 3 daughters) growing up, living loving and discovering themselves, the world and others in the small town of Galloway in Massachusetts in the early 1900's. From the football star, to the lonely scholar, to the forever wandering heartbreaker of a truck driver, Kerouac deals with each of the siblings separately, describing their very different lives and in doing so, gives us the readers, a glimpse into each of their souls.

The book can be read as a largely autobiographical account of Kerouac's life, with each of the Martin sons representing alternative parts of himself, his feelings, thoughts and personality. Alternatively, the reader can lose themselves in the lives of the Martin family without concerning themselves with the real or the elaborated.

Kerouac reaches the reader with soaring, descriptive writing, which transform the mundane and everyday into feelings and emotions which describe the things you've always thought and felt but could never articulate into words...

"He was sick now with a crying lonesomeness, he somehow knew that all moments were farewell, all life was goodbye."

Kerouac himself describes the book as, "The sum of myself as far as the written word can go." The great American novel? Possibly, but this book is definately an essential for all Kerouac fans, people who have ever wondered what somebody else was thinking and all those who have raged on into the lonely night looking for an 'angelheaded hipster' to give them meaning.

This is where it all started. Keroauc's first novel is a tough read. Not "tough" as in the crazed style of Dr. Sax, but "tough" as in "meticulous." TTATC has more of a formalized outline than the Kerouac books that followed --ie, On The Road, Dharma Bums, etc. I've read this book was fashioned in the style of Thomas Wolfe, one of Kerouac's hero; hence, the punctilious descriptions and rustic overtones. Nevertheless, it's still a fine story, depicting Kerouac and his families' migration from the milltown of Lowell to the urbanized New York City. As a note for some readers, Kerouac is represents as 3 different characters; the protagonist (Jack) and his 2 brothers.

Yes, this is Kerouac's first published novel. Yes, it is fundamentally autobiographical. Yes, it is stylistically derivative of Thomas Wolfe's epic novels. But there is more here for Kerouac devotees than these standard descriptions.

First, when centered between the works written immediately before and after The Town and the City (specifically, the selections of short pieces recently published in Atop an Underwood and Kerouac's second published novel, On the Road)a clear picture of a writer's development emerges. The Town and the City has a sustained narrative that builds to a satisfying conclusion. This would change over time as Kerouac became more focused on episodic writing in his novels--for instance, lengthy descriptions of jazz club settings in The Subteraneans, or maybe the best example, the tape transcriptions of conversations with Neal Cassady in Visions of Cody--and found little need for pure resolution. The beginning of this shift is noticeable in On the Road, when the detailed re-creation of a car ride takes precedent over plot. This type of writing is not to be found in The Town and the City.

Second, Kerouac's development as a human being presents itself as his themes are precipitated by the death of his father and the implicit responsibility for his family Kerouac (embodied in the character of Peter) would wrestle with for the rest of his life.

Third, Kerouac, almost shockingly, finds his literary voice in the final two-hundred pages of the novel. While most of the book moves along with the languid prose of a young writer imitating his idols, the "City" sections show Kerouac opening up, taking more risks, and discovering the type of writing that would become his trademark: Rythmic, unique, and energized accounts of characters almost willing their lives to unfold before them, and dead-on, perfectly real dialogue that makes you believe Kerouac had a tape recorder with him everywhere he went.

Finally, for those who've studied Kerouac's life and those that have visited his hometown of Lowell, you will see Kerouac struggling to fictionalize people, places, and events. This is a struggle he pretty much abandoned with On The Road, going so far as to use "Real Names" in the original draft. It is especially apparent in The Town and the City when Waldo committs suicide by jumping out of a window at Kenneth Wood's apartment. This episode was undoubtedly based on Lucien Carr's murder of David Kammerer. But Kerouac changes the murder to a suicide, and then attempts to fill Kenneth Wood with the same guilt Lucien Carr felt over the incident by implying that Kenneth might have pushed Waldo out the window. The result? It's not believable. Something Kerouac himself must have felt.

Kerouac claimed that the original inspiration for his spontaneous prose style was a forty-page letter he received from Neal Cassady before writing On the Road. The Town and the City shows Kerouac was already discovering a voice of his own and exploring the places and people that would dominate his fiction for the remainder of his career. It was that letter, though, that hurled him into a different realm, showing him the possibilities of a wild, new bop prosody, later leading to a recognition of Kerouac as a pioneering, risk-taking, totally unique writer. Had Cassady never sent that letter, we might well be talking of Kerouac today as a stylistic extension of Thomas Wolfe, or we may not be talking of him at all. Still, The Town and the City proves, with or without Neal's letter, Kerouac had greatness in him all along.

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).

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.

All of Jack Kerouac's writings don't really fit into the category of novels. They are more in the form of the sentimental memories of Proust or a man looking back on his life as if he were already dead. The Vanity of Duluoz is no exception to this style. Of course, Kerouac takes the title for his work from the Bible verse in which it is said "all is vanity". Written just two years before his death, most of the book seems a Cliff's Notes to his entire body of work.

The book is subtitled "An Adventerous Education 1935-1945" and basically covers ground already seen in other works. Except in this one, he is writing a book for his wife, as if to fill in the story of his life to someone. The driving force behind this work is football and war. It follows Kerouac from early high school football games into college and then into the merchant marines and to the formative years of the beat movement.

Even though one of Kerouac's biographers, Barry Miles, said this book was written in his "fat Elvis period", I found the book quite good. Not among the best of his work, but he still had the spark of writing even in the midst of alcoholism.

Especially good are his experiences in entering Columbia University and the politics that got involved with his playing time. I didn't know that Jack pretty much decided to write because the coach of his team refused to let him start. So, basically, Kerouac just said "I have better things to do than take this. I'm gonna become a writer".

Something not really touched on in other novels but included in this one is Jack's service in the armed forces and the merchant marines. He wasn't afraid to serve in the military during World War II, he just couldn't take being ordered around. Back then, merchant ships crossing the Atlantic were in just as much danger from German u-boats as any battleship.

When the book starting to lose its power was when Jack met the other Beats, who really in the end were a bunch of losers. Kerouac was like Cool Hand Luke. His friends fed off him and on him, draining his energy and sapping his ideas. Kerouac makes up names that are so thinly artificial for his friends that you feel like you're reading a Dickens novel. When he concentrates on himself, he is a genius. When he writes about others, he becomes weak. He should have kept the radar squarely on himself.

This book is pretty good. Average for Kerouac. It is a paradox. It is a novel written about his a joyous youth by a man who sees himself in bitter old age.

Thomas Wolfe served as a mentor to the young Jack Kerouac and greatly influenced Kerouac's first novel, "The Town and the City," in both scope and syle. And although Kerouac would soon develop his own unique vision and voice he could never tear himself completely from Wolfe's influence and the need to re-write or re-tell what had already been written or told. Just as Wolfe retold the story of Eugene Gant in his "The Web and the Rock" and "You Can't Go Home Again," Kerouac did the same with this novel. Readers of "The Town and the City," "Doctor Sax," and "Maggie Cassidy" will recognize the same characters (although under different names) and events that populate these other novels. What separates this novel from the others, however, is Kerouac's point of view. Gone is the childlike, wide-eyed enthusiasm that often drives Kerouac's writings (even in the depressing "Big Sur"); this is replaced with a middle aged cynicism and bitterness.

This novel covers the events from 1935-46, and follows the author from his teen age years in Lowell, Mass. to New York City. It is a time of football, college at Columbia, stints in the merchant marine and the U.S. Navy, introduction to the bohemian lifestyles of Morningside Heights and Greenwich Village, experimentation with marriage, experimentation with drugs. William Burroughs, Alan Ginsberg and other writers and artists who would eventually comprise the Beat Generation are encountered and described in a more critical light than in other of Kerouac's writings. Ginsberg is described as "a Puerto Rican nonentity bus boy in a nowhere void," and Burroughs as a great writer, "a shadow hovering over western literature." The pivotal point of this novel is the events surrounding the manslaughter of David Kammerer by Lucien Carr, an event in which Kerouac was peripherally involved (having observed Carr dispose of the weapon and Kammerer's bloody eye glasses).

This book was the last major work that Kerouac was to write. In 1967 he was living with his mother in a small house in Florida, politically conservative, grossly overweight, drinking heavily and strapped for cash. He had lived to see his own legend become irrelevant and see himself replaced by a new generation of writers like Ken Kesey, Tom Wolfe and the other Merry Pranksters. No wonder the vitriolic tone of some of the prose, especially when discussing hippies, LSD, and the attendant sixties culture. Many of the other reviewers of this book have stated that this is not a good book in which to be introduced to Kerouac. I agree totally. However, for those Kerouac fans and for those who want to experience the complete Duluoz Legend, this is required reading.

No, this isn't just for fanatics! If you want a history of good ol' Jack, then yes, it is just for fanatics. However, if you just want an exciting adventure, it's for anyone. This book has got something for everybody, seriously. It has crime, "romance", adventure on the high seas, everything and more.... and then there's always sport (now there's an obscure M. Python reference! Good thing it fits(:) Anyway, this book is a clasic, no matter what stuffy old lit scholars say. One of my favourite quotes comes from this one: "Insofar as nobody loves my dashes anyway, I'll use regular punctuation for the new illiterate generation." What's my favourite Jack quote? "Holy suffering cows!", that's what (: