Desolate Angel: Jack Kerouac, The Beat Generation, And America [Paperback]

Dennis Mcnally (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 18, 2003

Jack Kerouac-"King of the Beats," unwitting catalyst for the '60s counterculture, groundbreaking author-was a complex and compelling man: a star athlete with a literary bent; a spontaneous writer vilified by the New Critics but adored by a large, youthful readership; a devout Catholic but aspiring Buddhist; a lover of freedom plagued by crippling alcoholism. Desolate Angel follows Kerouac from his childhood in the mill town of Lowell, Massachusetts, to his early years at Columbia where he met Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, and Neal Cassady, beginning a four-way friendship that became a lifelong obsession. Kerouac's frenetic cross-country journeys, experiments with drugs and sexuality, travels to Mexico and Tangier, and years of failure, frustration, and depression are recounted with detail and sensitivity. Desolate Angel is a harrowing, compassionate portrait of a man and artist set against an extraordinary social backdrop.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A blockbuster of a biography...absolutely magnificent." -- San Francisco Chronicle

About the Author

Dennis McNally holds a doctoral degree in history from the University of Massachusetts and his written about Kerouac and the Beats for many scholarly journals. He is perhaps best known as the longtime publicist for the Grateful Dead and the author of the inside history of the band, A Long, Strange Trip. He lives in San Francisco.

Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press (March 18, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0306812223
• ISBN-13: 978-0306812224
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #303,754 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars painting Jack's Angel in a bigger canvas, November 28, 2003

By 

Karmacoupe (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Desolate Angel: Jack Kerouac, The Beat Generation, And America (Paperback)

I can't believe more people haven't written reviews of this book! It's essential if you're a Kerouac fan. It's by far the best-written word pictures of the bigger world Jack lived in. In fact, based on how well it was written and the accurate big picture it captured, Jerry Garcia found the author and brought him in to do the same thing for The Grateful Dead as their official biographer. [see A Long Strange Trip]

I've got pretty much every Kerouac or Beat bio published, and other than the oral biography 'Jack's Book' which is in a class of it's own because its just a bunch of quotes, this is the best because of how it marries a passion for the subject with a creative historian's eye. it has the same graphic, visual enthusiasm of Jack's voice, mind and writing, without being a cheap imitation. hmm, not unlike how Jimmy Herring's guitar playing in the Jerry-less Dead -- creating from the same pool of color and intent, painted with a similarly deft stroke, but unique and only imitative in subtle knowing energy loving ways.

The main vision of this work is how it paints the bigger canvas of the cities, culture, and country that Kerouac lived in. Other books may tell the ABCs of where Jack went when, and Jack's own books paint well the person he meets at the roadside coffee shop, but Jack was doing a series of small intimate portraits. Only indirectly and by implication did he write about popular culture and mores, or the politics and global events that were shaping the nation's mind.

This book is only comparable to cultural histories or documentaries on NY or SF or America of say 1940 to 1960. What this did for me was fill in the picture of what was going through the minds of all the "neat-necktied producers and commuters of America" that Jack was surrounded by but never really entered their world. What WAS the America that Jack rejected and stepping out of onto his Dharma Path? thank god Kerouac captured what was going on in the hip pioneers' cabins in the rare clusters of non-conformity that were the embryos of the entire counter-culture soon to blossom, but obviously most serious broad-minded historians don't love Jack enough to set their studies around his story. so equally thank god we've got one historian Jack-channeler who fills in the sets around jack's characters.

Just to be clear, the book Is all about Jack and the people in his life, it's not Mostly a 40s / 50s history book, there's just More of that big picture stuff in here than in any other Jack bio. For me, there was more of an 'ah-ha' in this book, as I understood more all the other people walking along Market Street and filling Times Square and commuting to the suburbs of Queens and Las Gatos.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent read that offers beadth on the Beat Generation, October 1, 1997

By 

Brian Wolf (Chicago,IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Desolate Angel: Jack Kerouac, the Beat Generation, and America (Paperback)

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).

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Clear, concise, and a great read, September 24, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Desolate Angel: Jack Kerouac, the Beat Generation, and America (Paperback)

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.