Synopses & Reviews
Here, in what has become a classic of its kind since its publication in 1978, is the fascinating story of an American literary legend, recorded through the voices of the friends and lovers of Jack Kerouac, King of the Beats. Authors Barry Gifford and Lawrence Lee retraced Keoruac's life at home and on the road, and talked with the prophets, musicians, poets, socialites, and working people who knew Jack Kerouac. Some are famous (Allen Ginsberg, Gore Vidal, William Burroughs, Gary Snyder, among others), some are not (Jack's boyhood buddies, his lovers, his barroom companions). All have contributed to a remarkably vibrant, riveting portrait of a life. We see Jack at Columbia University and on the scene of Greenwich Village; speeding across the tarmac of America with Neal Cassidy (Dan Moriarty in Keorac's classic novel, On the Road); at home with his possessive mother; in California, drinking wine and talking Buddhism; and finally, in Florida, where his life ends tragically at age forty-seven. Jack's Book, like Kerouac's novels, makes a unique contribution to our understanding of a man and a generation that shaped the dreams and visions of those who followed.
Review
“
Jack’s Book is first rate…it offers the flavor and depth of good fiction while keeping well within the realm of literal truth.”
Review
“I suggest you read
Jack’s Book…Mr. Gifford and Mr. Lee seem to have interviewed everyone connected with Kerouac.”
Vincent Canby
Review
“The greatest value of
Jack’s Book…lies in the richness and depth…it is dynamic, mixing exceptionally well-written biography with oral journalism…it adds richness and depth to the previous portraits.”
Review
“A fascinating literary and historical document, the most insightful look at the beat generation.”
Dan Wakefield
Review
“There have been biographies of Kerouac, but this is an entirely different and much more satisfying work…not a static portrait, but a slow-moving picture of a man unfolding from childhood to heartbreak end; a drama whose focus or clarity or completeness changes depending on who’s holding the camera. An engrossing tale.”
Review
“A very immediate, crisp addition to the Kerouac papers—lively in its interspliced rhythms and…compelling.”
Review
“If you’re interested in listening to what the talk of the Fifties sounded like, and if you believe that literature may just have something to do with life, then read this book.”
Review
“My God, it’s just like Rashomon. Everybody lies and the truth comes out.”
Allen Ginsberg
Review
“To read
Jack’s Book is to be present at a gathering of Kerouac’s friends, colleagues, lovers, even his…enemies—of all the lives of Kerouac I have read, this one has the most life.”
James Campbell
Review
“I consider
Jack’s Book an essential text—it gives a far more authentic and balanced picture of Jack than any existing biography.”
Joyce Johnson
Synopsis
"A fascinating literary and historical document, the most insightful look at the Beat Generation." —Dan Wakefield, author of New York in the Fifties and Going All the Way
First published in 1978, Jack's Book gives us an intimate look into the life and times of the "King of the Beats." Through the words of the close friends, lovers, artists, and drinking buddies who survived him, writers Barry Gifford and Lawrence Lee recount Jack Kerouac's story, from his childhood in Lowell, Massachusetts, to his tragic end in Florida at the age of forty-seven. Including anecdotes from an eclectic list of well-known figures such as Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, and Gore Vidal, as well as Kerouac's ordinary acquaintances, this groundbreaking oral biography—the first of its kind—presents us with a remarkably insightful portrait of an American legend and the spirit of a generation.
About the Author
Barry Gifford is a poet, novelist, screenwriter, and librettist best known for the novel Wild at Heart, which was adapted into an award-winning film by David Lynch, and for cowriting the screenplay for Lynch's film Lost Highway. Published in twenty-eight languages, he has been the recipient of awards from PEN, the National Endowment for the Arts, the American Library Association, and the Writers Guild of America. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Lawrence Lee (d. 1990) was a Peabody Award–winning journalist who cowrote the acclaimed biography Saroyan with Gifford.