As a spirited but naive young woman, the author endured a brief and frustrating marriage to Jack Kerouac. This is a memoir of that time in her life, written when she was a middle aged woman struggling with terminal cancer. Joan Haverty wanted more out of life than women were expected to have: ideas, adventures, answers to the Big Questions. Her marriage to Kerouac was a misguided attempt to find those things through a relationship with a man who appeared to have them all. Appearances, she quickly learned, were not to be trusted.

She left Kerouac (and his mother) sadder, wiser, and pregnant with a daughter whom he refused to acknowledge.

I am not a fan of Kerouac, and don't really understand why he - or his writing - has been so admired. However, I read this book to find out more about the real man behind the legend. I did learn a little about Kerouac, but I was more moved by the story of Hagerty's struggle to retain her independence of mind.

I wish she had lived to write more books.