Customer Reviews

Jack's book: An oral biography of Jack Kerouac

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I love oral histories, and I Kerouac's alright. Its neat that the people responsible for this book collected and intereviewed some of Jack's friends from before he became famous. I was also unaware of his firt's marriages annulment and his involvment in hiding a body. There's a lot of great snippets... but there's also a lot of boring windbags blowing in this book too.

Still, its worth every penny.

Chock to bursting with recollections from Kerouac's intimates, this page-turner will be read in two or three sittings. These recollections are interspersed among the authors' own discoveries and conclusions. Not as exhaustive as "Memory Babe," this book is more for the person just getting into Kerouac's work and life. In the back of this book are lists of what has become of these acquaintances of Kerouac's and what their aliases were in his books, information which will become dearer to you as you delve deeper into Jack's Duluoz Legend. All in all, one terrific book worth anyone's time and money.

Gifford and Lee, seemingly well read about the Beats and Keoruac, are second only to Ann Charter's biographical work on Kerouac. The real sense of the'50's, the mentality, the hazards, and the activities of Burrows, Ginsberg,Jack and the boys are given a very thorough and entertaining once over. The scholarly merit isn't here, but the titilation and interesting skinny is.