Jack Kerouac

From the most famous of the Beat writers and the author of On the Road and The Dharma Bums, Kerouac's intoxicating love story of two young bohemians, now reissued in the centenary year of his birthWritten over the course of three days and three nights, The Subterraneans was generated out of the same kind of ecstatic flash of inspiration that produced another one of Kerouac's early classics, On the Road. Centering around the tempestuous romance and breakup of Leo Percepied and Mardou Fox--two denizens of the 1950s San Francisco underground--The Subterraneans is a tale of dark alleys and smoky rooms, of artists, visionaries, and adventurers existing outside mainstream America's field of vision. Loosely based on Kerouac's own life, and peopled with analogues of real-life friends, including William S. Burroughs, Gregory Corso, Allen Ginsberg, and Neal Cassady, The Subterraneans is a vivid and breathless masterwork of Beat literature.

Dzhek Keruak (Zhan-Lui Lebri de Keruak, 1922-1969) - pisatel-epokha, pisatel-paradoks, posejavshij veter i ne uspevshij tolkom uznat, chto pozhal burju, ne utikhshuju i v nashi vremena. Vykhodets iz obednevshej semi frantsuzskikh aristokratov, on stal golosom protestujuschej amerikanskoj molodezhi i poznakomil molodykh amerikanskikh intellektualov s buddizmom. Kritiki vysokomerno ne zamechali ego, chitateli-nonkonformisty - nosili na rukakh. Bujnyj... Lirichnyj... Chuvstvennyj... Dikij... Energichnyj... Takimi epitetami opisyvali pervye kritiki etot roman Dzheka Keruaka - knigu, kotoraja zazhgla vse pokolenie khippi. Saga dvukh skitaltsev s Zapadnogo poberezhja Ameriki i istorija ikh bezuderzhnykh poiskov Istiny i Ottjaga. Raskovannye devushki, svobodnaja ljubov, reki vina i vostochnaja mistika - tak nachinaetsja ikh dukhovnoe stranstvie. No istinnoe Prozrenie nastupaet lish na vershine odinokoj gory, v sokrovennom odinochestve, unosjaschem ikh vvys... Roman Dzheka Keruaka v 1958 godu snes vse barery i provel chitatelja ot svingujuschikh barov San-Frantsisko do zasnezhennykh pikov Serry. Vsjo novye pokolenija chitatelej nakhodjat v nem i seksualnye orgii - zadolgo do "leta ljubvi", i svobodnye dzhazovye improvizatsii - esche do pojavlenija rok-muzyki, i poeticheskie "ljubovnye zabastovki", i marafony pjanstva, kotorym predajutsja molodye ljudi, podsevshie na chuvstvennost i stremjaschiesja "uletet". Brodjagi Dkharmy.

Dzhek Keruak (Zhan-Lui Lebri de Keruak, 1922-1969) - pisatel-epokha, pisatel-paradoks, posejavshij veter i ne uspevshij tolkom uznat, chto pozhal burju, ne utikhshuju i v nashi vremena. Vykhodets iz obednevshej semi frantsuzskikh aristokratov, on stal golosom protestujuschej amerikanskoj molodezhi i poznakomil molodykh amerikanskikh intellektualov s buddizmom. Kritiki vysokomerno ne zamechali ego, chitateli-nonkonformisty - nosili na rukakh. Iz Nju-Jorka - v San-Frantsisko. Iz San-Frantsisko - v Los-Andzheles. Iz Los-Andzhelesa - v Nju-Orlean. Iz Nju-Orleana?.. Zabyty zheny i podruzhki, domashnij ujut i popytki obresti uspekh i mesto v ofitsialnoj literaturnoj nomenklature. Tysjachami dorog lozhitsja Amerika pod kolesa starenkogo avtomobilja. Vse novymi i novymi litsami, sudbami i istorijami predstaet ona pered dvumja zakadychnymi druzjami - molodym pisatelem i plamennym "buntarem bez prichiny". Takov roman "Na doroge", vpervye opublikovannyj v 1957 godu. On byl vdrebezgi razbit kritikoj, no, nesmotrja na eto, stal snachala natsionalnym, a zatem i mezhdunarodnym bestsellerom. On spravedlivo vkhodit v chislo samykh kultovykh knig v istorii mirovoj literatury, vkljuchen v spiski luchshikh proizvedenij XX veka po versijam "Time", "Le Monde", "BBC" i "Observer" i do sikh por prodaetsja ogromnymi tirazhami. No chto vazhnee vsego - eta kniga uzhe sedmoj desjatok let vdokhnovljaet vse novye i novye pokolenija junoshej i devushek, otkazyvajuschikhsja zhit po zakonam skuchnoj i ogranichennoj burzhuaznoj morali.

6 stjerner, Jyllands-Posten5 stjerner, BerlingskeI Big Sur er Jack Kerouacs alter ego Jack Duluoz ved at blive vanvittig efter tre a°rs konstant opmærksomhed, telegrammer, breve og telefonopkald, journalister og nysgerrige fans, der forfølger ham efter succesen med romanen Vejene. Jack ”King of the Beats” har brug for fred og ro, og han har brug for en pause i sit massive alkoholmisbrug. Han føler sig omringet og i undertal, panisk over byens tempo, og flygter ud i vennen Lorenzo Monsantos hytte i det vilde og smukke Big Sur i Californien. Jack kæmper med den myte om sig selv, som han selv har været med til at skabe. Big Sur er en bevægende fortælling om en mand, der sla°s med sine indre dæmoner: Velsignet med et stort talent og bebyrdet med en drift mod at ødelægge alting for sig selv. Han ga°r pa° en snæver sti mellem de to ting, og den er fuld af dobbelt-bourbons, Manhattans og whisky.

Who were all these strange ghosts rooted to the silly little adventure of earth with me? And who was I? - Ray SmithThe Dharma Bums, follows years after the events of Kerouac's best-known work On the Road and like the earlier novel is populated by semi-fictionalised versions of the Beat Generation that Kerouac was a part of. The fictionalised Kerouac, Ray Smith, meets Zen poet and adventurer Japhy Ryder - based on Gary Snyder - and is invigorated by his adventuring and Zen Buddhist lifestyle. The book follows these two men on their quest for dharma or truth as they travel across America. The Dharma Bums explores Smith's search for transcendence in the expanses of America, as he climbs the Matterhorn and lives in isolation on Desolation Peak, juxtaposed against his city-life of parties and poetry readings. Written in Kerouac's signature 'spontaneous prose' which blends narrative with prose-poetry the book would prove a significant influence on the later Hippie counterculture and remains one of his most popular works.

'The piteousness of his little soft shroud of hair falling down his brow and swept aside by the hand over blue serious eyes'Described by Kerouac as 'my most serious sad and true book', Visions of Gerard forms the first volume of his memoir cycle the 'Duluoz Legend'. Based on Jack Kerouac's memories of the beloved older brother who died when he was a boy, it is unique among his novels for its dreamlike evocation of the sensations of childhood - its wisdom, anguish, intensity, innocence, joy and pain. It is a haunting exploration of the precariousness of existence.'Called a "pain-tale" by Kerouac, it's the story of an almost divine, Buddha-like child wracked with sickness and suffering' Guardian

Five years after On the Road, the book that made him an overnight celebrity, Kerouac examines with wrenching clarity his unwished for fame, escalating alcoholism, and troubling alienation from nature. In a thinly veiled autobiographical account of his time in Big Sur at the cabin of Lawrence Ferlinghetti and with friends in San Francisco--among them fellow iconoclasts Neal Cassady, Gary Snyder, and Alan Watts--he chronicles a ruinous alcoholic bender with searing psychological candor. Kerouac displays full mastery of pace, structure, and idiom in Big Sur--a tale that ends with a crescendo as finely wrought and poignant as any in American literature. Includes a character key and a detailed biographical timeline.

'She understands Karma, she says: "What I do, I reap"'Her name means sadness, yet Tristessa, a prostitute and morphine addict, lives without cares in her shabby room with a menagerie of pets and an altar to the Virgin Mary. Based on Jack Kerouac's own real-life love affair in Mexico city, this is the story of a man's ill-fated relationship with a woman he portrays with tenderness and dignity, even as her life spirals out of control. 'A narrative meditation studying a hen, a rooster, a dove, a cat, a chihuaha dog, family meat, and a ravishing, ravished junky lady, first in their crowded bedroom, then out to drunken streets, taco stands, and pads at dawn in Mexico City slums' Allen Ginsberg

Kerouac's last published novel, Pic is an endearing portrait of a road trip across America, seen through the eyes of one innocent, adventurous boy.'Pic', or Pictorial Review Jackson, is a ten-year-old boy from North Carolina. When his grandfather dies and he is sent to live with another relative, his older brother, Slim, comes to rescue him. Together they hitch to New York City and, eventually, all the way to California, encountering hardship, kindness, music, love and danger as they go.

'I want to be considered a jazz poet blowing a long blues in an afternoon jam session on Sunday'Freewheeling and spontaneous, Mexico City Blues is Jack Kerouac's most significant and emblematic poem. Consisting of 242 loosely linked 'choruses', it takes in life, death, spirituality, jazz improvisation, memory, fantasies and dreams, all infused with the rhythm of the blues, to create a surreal and all-encompassing epic. 'A spontaneous bop prosody and original classic literature' Allen Ginsberg'A jazz poet. His sentences frequently move into tempestuous sweeps and whorls and sometimes they have something of the rich music of Gerard Manley Hopkins or Dylan Thomas' The New York Herald Tribune