Customer Reviews

Ginsberg: A Biography

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this book may not be the best biography on ginsberg but it is the only one i know of that tackles the later years. i have the original hardcover version of this book but i knew nothing of mr. ginsberg's later years. this new edition fills in the blanks. allen's later years were just as interesting as the former. it also shows the depth of character that allen possessed even to the end.he was indeed a 20th century boddhisattva. i miss him.

This is the ultimate Allen Ginsberg biography. It goes into detail about all aspects of Allen's life from his childhood with emotionally disturbed mother Naomi (for which Kaddish was written) to his death from liver cancer in 1997. All his crazy times with fellow beats (Kerouac, Burroughs, Corso, etc.) are well documented and events which are eluded to in his poetry and journals are brought to light. If you have any interest in Ginsberg this is the book to read.

Although the writer focuses on Ginsberg, his life chronicles the history of the Beats, how they came to be, and their seminal contribution to the spawning of the radical 60's in America. Must reading for anyone interested in this era and the effect of the Beat movement on American culture and mindset.

I especially enjoyed the intimate perspective from which it is written, honing in on Ginsberg's persona in every day settings. It brings Ginsberg and his cronies, Burroughs, Kerouac, Cassady, etc., alive in a profoundly personal way.

Barry Miles writes very well. I totally became absorbed in this book and found it easy and enjoyable reading. Its 600+ pages and there's allot of info. Worth every page read.

From Ginsberg's family, childhood, early days, trips and more trips - Europe, Mexico,- the whole world, and the later acid trips other fine psychedelic conscious expanding moments, the Blake vision, the beats, the poets, the artists, the boys (the woman too), the drugs, the openness, the left leaning compassion and understandings, Kerouac, Bouroughs, Hunke, Whalen, Corso, McClure, Orlovsky, Carl Solomon, Williams, Pound - the list goes on and on. The 50's beats and the 60's spiritual flower children, political thoughts, the 1967 Human Be-In, the Chicago Democratic Convention. I'll stop here.

I also recommend "Spontaneous Mind," 600+ pages of interviews of Allen. I Love the man.

This is a well-written, well-researched biography of one of the most influential popular cultural heros of our time. The author really digs below the surface to treat the reader to an intimate profile of the great Beat poet. It's often as if you were right there with Alan, experiencing life to the full.

Regrettably the book is published by the very commercially-oriented Virgin Publishing. Together with cheap paper and pale ink, there are numerous spelling errors and word repetitions which detract from the tantalizing narrative. However, it should be noted too that the author is also not very precise. Early in the book he refers to the Moazrt Clarinet Quintet as a trio--although he does correct himself a couple of pages later (or was it the other way around?)--and even misspells Dwight Goddard's name, the editor of the Buddhist Bible (Mr. Miles spells it with two d's rather than three).

Otherwise, fascinating reading. Hard to put down, once you've started. I'll definitely read it again.