Synopses & Reviews
". . . [Weaver] paints a romantic picture of Greenwich Village in the 1950s and '60s, when she worked in publishing and hung out with Allen Ginsberg and the poet Richard Howard and was wild and loose, getting high and falling into bed almost immediately with her crushes, including Lenny Bruce. . . . Her descriptions of the Village are evocative, recalling a time when she wore long skirts, Capezio ballet shoes and black stockings,' and used to sit in the Bagatelle and have sweet vermouth on the rocks with a twist of lemon.' Early on, she quotes Pasternak: You in others: this is your soul.' Kerouac's soul lives on through many people -- Joyce Johnson, for one -- but few have been as adept as Weaver at capturing both him and the New York bohemia of the time. He was lucky to have met her." --Tara McKelvey, The New York Times Book Review
There is a tendency for memoirs written by women about The Great Man to be self-abnegating exercises in a kind of inverted narcissismthe author seeking to prove her worth as muse, as consort, as chosen one. Not so with Helen Weavers beautiful, plainspoken elegy for her time spent with Jack Kerouac, who suddenly appeared at her door in the West Village one white, frosty morning with Allen Ginsberg, who knew Weavers roommate, in tow.”New York Post
Helen Weavers book was a revelation to me! . . . This is the most graphic, honest, shameless, and moving documentary of what the newly liberated women in cities got up tohow they lived, loved, and created. Who knew? It is time they did! And heres how.”Carolyn Cassady
The book recounts her affair with Kerouac in 1956 during the period when he signed his literary contract for On the Road, but
Review
"Helen Weaver's moving, intelligent and clear-eyed memoir will capture the attention of many readers (as it should) because of her love affair with Jack Kerouac — How many people can claim to have slept with Kerouac AND Lenny Bruce, by the way? — but in fact her book is far more than merely a very sympathetic portrait of Kerouac, and of his friend Allen Ginsberg and of the people around them; it is at once a wonderfully intimate insider's description of a vanished age, an American Vie Boheme when all things seemed possible, that of the Beats, and of Greenwich Village in the 1950s, and a memoir which is never for one moment mean-spirited, and which is triumphantly honest and candid about herself, as likeable in these pages as she is in real life." Michael Korda, author of Charmed Lives and Queenie
Review
"In the latest in a long line of kiss-and-tell memoirs about Jack Kerouac, Weaver, translator of over 50 books from the French, chronicles her brief love affair with the author against the backdrop of the 1950s in Greenwich Village. She works in publishing, undergoes psychoanalysis, and becomes part of a literary circle that includes Allen Ginsberg, Richard Howard, and Dan Wakefield. Unlike Kerouac, she is swept into the cultural revolution of the 1960s, embracing New Age ideas like Native American spirituality, goddess worship, witchcraft, and astrology. Weaver writes in a clear, straightforward style, candidly discussing her feelings about Kerouac and others, including her roommate Helen Elliott and her rival for Kerouac's affection, Joyce Johnson. Her analysis of Kerouac’s life, work, and reputation is intelligent and on target. In the end, Weaver regrets that her own rejection of Kerouac paralleled that of a literary establishment that only came to appreciate him after his death. Verdict: Readers interested in the role of women in the Beat Generation will enjoy this book alongside earlier works like Joyce Johnson’s Minor Characters and Carolyn Cassady’s Off the Road." William Gargan, Library Journal
Review
"Through her insightful prose and piercing honesty, she manages to paint a universal face with this book, telling the story of many-a-man living at an invisible edge. If anything, Helen Weaver wrote this book for all these human shadows who hunger to be held (but who always come to break the embrace before it becomes another cage)." John Aiello, The Electric Review
Review
"You won't read these stories anywhere else, and definitely not from someone with such an authentic voice. . . .I am absolutely convinced that anyone with an interest in the beat generation or even the 50s and 60s in general will fall in love with The Awakener, and with Helen Weaver." Rick Dale, The Daily Beat
Review
"There is a tendency for memoirs written by women about The Great Man to be self-abnegating exercises in a kind of inverted narcissism — the author seeking to prove her worth as muse, as consort, as chosen one. Not so with Helen Weaver’s beautiful, plainspoken elegy for her time spent with Jack Kerouac, who suddenly appeared at her door in the West Village one white, frosty morning with Allen Ginsberg, who knew Weaver’s roommate, in tow." New York Post
Review
"The book recounts her affair with Kerouac in 1956 during the period when he signed his literary contract for On the Road, but The Awakener is much more than a kiss-and-tell. It is at once a collection of remarkable, first-hand anecdotes about the Beats, an authoritative insight into the times from one who was on the front lines, and a coming-of-age story by the writer, who was immortalized in Kerouac's Desolation Angels as Ruth Heaper." Andrea Barrist Stern, Woodstock Times
Review
"[Weaver's] new book is as much about Kerouac -- the meteor and its impact -- as it is about her own ambling through the dales of the New York literary world . . . Weaver has not forgotten the sexism that tainted even the enlightened Beats, but she speaks from the sunny side and is grateful for their energy and vision. Like Kerouac, she was drawn to bad boys and dictionaries -- it’s easy to see why they were a match." -- Marx Dorrity, Chronogram
Review
"Twenty years in the writing, Weaver's memoir of her life in New York City in the 1950s and 1960s is worth the wait. With a cast of characters including Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and Lenny Bruce, the book recreates a time of radical change and great possibility especially for a young woman escaping a repressive upbringing. While the author's account of her romantic relationship with Kerouac (she appears in Kerouac's 'Desolation Angels') takes up a substantial part of the book, it's far from the only good story she has to tell. Weaver brings readers into her apartment as she listens to records of Lenny Bruce, explaining why the comic's routines had such a great impact on her and others, and then she shares the tale of her quick affair with the man himself. This lively, intelligent, and revealing book will appeal to anyone interested in the Beat Generation and the 1960s counterculture." Book News
Review
"The Awakener's first chapters are energized by Weaver's personal liberation at a time when America itself was starting to wake up. She smokes pot, explores the limits of her sexuality and defends Bill Haley's 'Rock Around the Clock' to high-minded literary pals like poet Richard Howard. . . . But the most touching moments in the
book take place when Weaver focuses her keen powers of observation on the soul of her wounded hero. . . . Now 78 and living in
Woodstock, she has come to appreciate the two-fold nature of his role as an awakener in her life. As a playful and enthusiastic
lover, Kerouac helped initiate her into the richness of existence. And with his own Christianized version of the dharma, he made her aware of the brevity and preciousness of our time on Earth." Steve Silberman, San Francisco Chronicle
Review
". . . [Weaver] paints a romantic picture of Greenwich Village in the 1950s and ’60s, when she worked in publishing and hung out with Allen Ginsberg and the poet Richard Howard and was wild and loose, getting high and falling into bed almost immediately with her crushes, including Lenny Bruce. . . . Her descriptions of the Village are evocative, recalling a time when she wore 'long skirts, Capezio ballet shoes and black stockings,' and used to 'sit in the Bagatelle and have sweet vermouth on the rocks with a twist of lemon.' Early on, she quotes Pasternak: 'You in others: this is your soul.' Kerouac’s soul lives on through many people Joyce Johnson, for one but few have been as adept as Weaver at capturing both him and the New York bohemia of the time. He was lucky to have met her." Tara McKelvey, New York Times Book Review
Review
“. . . a memoir which a reader may cherish first because it recounts a life book-ended by two relationships with Jack Kerouac. But that reader will find Helen Weaver's remarkable life engaging, in its own right, as well. It is the story of a talented and spirited young woman growing up in the thick of her times. . . . an exceptional portrait of women at the cusp of the feminist era.” Gilbert Wesley Purdy, Eclectica
Review
“. . . a vivid recollection of the birth of rock n roll and the counterculture movement known as the Beat Generation. . . . I’d recommend it to anyone looking for insight into the undoing of America that occurred during the 50s and 60s.” Good Books in Bad Times
Review
"Weaver proves to be brilliantly honest throughout her memoir while placing readers in the thick of the New York Beat scene as only one who has lived it can. Her thoughtful reflection is rendered with loving care and great attention to detail, while transfixing the reader in a forgotten time. Through clear and straightforward language Weaver unapologetically places the real value of her experiences and her interpretations of those experiences ahead of the legends she encountered, while still paying them the tribute they deserve. It is a fine line to walk, but she does so gracefully and authentically." Candace Eros Diaz, MARY Magazine
Review
"This book does a good job of humanizing and demystifying the Beats. All the parties, problems, romances, brief affairs and hurt feelings Weaver talks about are specific to her and her friends in the ‘50s, but very much like the things my friends and I went through in the ‘70s, and that artistic young people are going through today while coming of age, groping for identity, finding love and making their way in the world." Dan Barth, Dharma Beat
Review
"The Awakener opens a window into a black-and-white world both foreign and familiar to those who have already placed themselves into Jack Kerouac's authorial sensibilities. Helen Weaver's account of her relationship with Kerouac suspends the beat mythology hovering over these times and instead grounds the reader into the realistic grit of a decade of artistic abstractions. It is a book that is timeless and mortal, splendidly written with a grounded objectivity of intelligence and wit." Paul Maher Jr. author of Kerouac: His Life and Work & Empty Phantoms: Interviews and Encounters with Jack Kerouac
Review
"In her book 'The Awakener: A Memoir of Kerouac and the Fifties', the translator and writer Helen Weaver provides a lush picture of her short, turbulent affair with the Beat writer that changed her life. In Weaver’s swirling memoir, readers will get a fresh perspective on Jack Kerouac and his magnetism as a man and writer."
The Star-Ledger
Review
"Weaver discovered herself in the 1950s, with Kerouac and other artists like Ginsberg and Lenny Bruce, and although most Americans don't have an impressive list of famous friends, her story is our story; every twenty-something college graduate experiences the ecstasy of new ideas and profound perception that comes with real life. Whether our is in New York City or Nowhere, USA, Weaver's experience is comparable to all our experiences in this country--this is what makes The Awakener so readable and touching; these characters appear in every American's past."
—Meredith Boe, World Literature Today
Review
"Coodley's biography should renew interest in the works of this passionate writer."and#8212;Publishers Weekly
Review
"Thoroughly engaging."and#8212;Kirkus
Review
"An invaluable look at Sinclair's full life and influential work."and#8212;Carl Hays, Booklist
Review
andquot;A rounded, insightful sense of Sinclair and his times.andquot;andmdash;
Historical Novel SocietyReview
and#8220;Lauren Coodleyand#8217;s perceptive account should awaken fresh interest in one of the twentieth centuryand#8217;s more fascinating cultural figures and his extraordinaryand#8212;sadly, mostly forgottenand#8212;body of work.and#8221;and#8212;Julie Salamon, author of Wendy and the Lost Boys
Review
andldquo;Upton Sinclair traversed the first half of the twentieth century like a rogue star. His prodigious writing and activism in the service of social justice perturbed the status quo, awakening millions to everything from appalling working conditions, poisoned food, and media bias to the rise of fascism and environmental decline. Yet his determination to lead a balanced and healthy life led some biographers to disparage him as less than a full man. Lauren Coodley rescues Sinclair from such critical condescension and reminds us of the many lives that he packed into one even as he moved the lives of both the common and the great.andrdquo;andmdash;Gray Brechin, author of Imperial San Francisco: Urban Power, Earthly Ruin
Review
"This new biography goes beyond the usual focus on Sinclair's literary prowess to examine the extent of his entire life and his influence on California and American civil and social rights, and fills in gaps narrower focuses have created in the past."and#8212;James A. Cox, Midwest Book Review
Review
"Upton Sinclair is an asset for those beginning to impose order on the real-life and imagined women who help constitute Sinclair's legacy."and#8212;Laura Hapke, Working USA:The Journal of Labor and Society
Synopsis
Literary Nonfiction. Memoir. THE AWAKENER is Helen Weaver's long awaited memoir of her adventures with Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Lenny Bruce, and other wild characters from the New York City of the fifties and sixties. The sheltered but rebellious daughter of bookish Midwestern parents, Weaver survived a repressive upbringing in the wealthy suburbs of Scarsdale and an early divorce to land in Greenwich Village just in time for the birth of rock 'n' roll--and the counterculture movement known as the Beat Generation. Shortly after her arrival Kerouac, Ginsberg, and company--old friends of her roommate--arrive on their doorstep after a non-stop drive from Mexico. Weaver and Kerouac fall in love on sight, and Kerouac moves in.
Synopsis
The Awakener is Helen Weaver's long awaited memoir of her adventures with Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Lenny Bruce, and other wild characters from the New York City of the fifties and sixties. The sheltered but rebellious daughter of bookish Midwestern parents, Weaver survived a repressive upbringing in the wealthy suburbs of Scarsdale and an early divorce to land in Greenwich Village just in time for the birth of rock 'n' roll — and the counterculture movement known as the Beat Generation. Shortly after her arrival Kerouac, Ginsberg, and company — old friends of her roommate — arrive on their doorstep after a non-stop drive from Mexico. Weaver and Kerouac fall in love on sight, and Kerouac moves in.
Weaver recreates the excitement of a time when things were radically changing and shows us what it was like living with an eccentric genius at the turning point of his life. Eventually she asks Jack to leave but they remain friends, and over the years her respect for his writing grows even as Kerouac's reputation undergoes a gradual transition from enfant terrible to American icon. She comes to realize that by writing On the Road he woke America up — along with her — from the long dream of the fifties. And the Buddhist philosophy that once struck her as Jack's excuse for doing whatever he liked because "nothing is real, it's all a dream" eventually becomes her own.
Synopsis
There is a tendency for memoirs written by women about The Great Man to be self-abnegating exercises in a kind of inverted narcissism--the author seeking to prove her worth as muse, as consort, as chosen one. Not so with Helen Weaver's beautiful, plainspoken elegy for her time spent with Jack Kerouac, who suddenly appeared at her door in the West Village one white, frosty morning with Allen Ginsberg, who knew Weaver's roommate, in tow.--New York Post
Helen Weaver's book was a revelation to me . . . This is the most graphic, honest, shameless, and moving documentary of what the newly liberated women in cities got up to--how they lived, loved, and created. Who knew? It is time they did And here's how.--Carolyn Cassady
The book recounts her affair with Kerouac in 1956 during the period when he signed his literary contract for On the Road, but The Awakener is much more than a kiss-and-tell. It is at once a collection of remarkable, first-hand anecdotes about the Beats, an authoritative insight into the times from one who was on the front lines, and a coming-of-age story by the writer, who was immortalized in Kerouac's Desolation Angels as Ruth Heaper.--The Woodstock Times
The Awakener is an intimate memoir of the author's adventures and coming-of-age alongside Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Lenny Bruce, and other wild characters from the New York City of the '50s and early '60s.
Helen Weaver has translated over fifty books from the French. She lives in Kingston, New York.
Synopsis
Helen Weaver's insightful and riveting memoir of love and friendship with Jack Kerouac and the Beats.
Synopsis
Helen Weaver's insightful and riveting memoir of love and friendship with Jack Kerouac and the Beats.
Synopsis
Had Upton Sinclair not written a single book after The Jungle, he would still be famous. But Sinclair was a mere twenty-five years old when he wrote The Jungle, and over the next sixty-five years he wrote nearly eighty more books and won a Pulitzer Prize for fiction. He was also a filmmaker, labor activist, womenand#8217;s rights advocate, and health pioneer on a grand scale. This new biography of Sinclair underscores his place in the American story as a social, political, and cultural force, a man who more than any other disrupted and documented his era in the name of social justice.
Upton Sinclair: California Socialist, Celebrity Intellectual shows us Sinclair engaged in one cause after another, some surprisingly relevant todayand#8212;the Sacco-Vanzetti trial, the depredations of the oil industry, the wrongful imprisonment of the Wobblies, and the perils of unchecked capitalism and concentrated media. Throughout, Lauren Coodley provides a new perspective for looking at Sinclairand#8217;s prodigiously productive life. Coodleyand#8217;s book reveals a consistent streak of feminism, both in Sinclairand#8217;s relationships with womenand#8212;wives, friends, and activistsand#8212;and in his interest in issues of housework and childcare, temperance and diet. This biography will forever alter our picture of this complicated, unconventional, often controversial man whose whole life was dedicated to helping people understand how society was run, by whom, and for whom.
About the Author
Helen Weaver has translated over fifty books from the French of which one, Antonin Artaud: Selected Writings (FSG) was a Finalist for the National Book Award in translation in 1976. She is co-author and general editor of the Larousse Encyclopedia of Astrology and author of The Daisy Sutra, a book on animal communication. She lives in Kingston, New York.