Customer Reviews

Kerouac: A Biography

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

While in college, I had to do a paper on "On The Road" and after reading it, I became absolutely fascinated with Jack Kerouac. I got this book out of the library one day. I think it is excellent. It documents Kerouac's whole life from birth to death and gives the reader a wonderul insight into the "real" Jack Kerouac. I literally could not put this down.

Ms. Charters did a commenable job putting together
this book. I would rate it right up there with
Nicosia's bio. The author certainly provided a lot
of background info and did a compelling job of
helping me get a better understanding of the social
climate which Kerouac & friends had to contend with
and conquer. My only complaint is that her writing style
sometimes lapses into a style a little too closely allied
with that of her subject, but given the subject matter, that is

understandable. I would recommend this book for those of
you who have found Kerouac's writings to be enjoyable.

Next to Greg Nicosia's book, this is probably the best biography we have on Kerouac. I'd recommend that you read both Charter's and Nicosia's.

Although there's quite a few bio's of Jack out there, it's unfortunate that the majority of them are sub standard. I read this decades ago and remembered it fondly, but a careful re-reading has brought out all the defects. Charters evidently couldn't quote from the sources, so what remains is a botch of a biography. There's really nothing here substantial, and Charters is reduced to re-wording the books... She also has the ingratiating habit of putting herself in quite a few scenes. Yet she's the only one of Kerouac's many biographers that actually met the man, and her telling of meeting him to do his bibliography is a good representation of the mans sad later years. Thus the need to repeat head-shaking incidents, ad nauseam, is avoided... Kerouac's wife Stella and his mother weren't happy with the first edition of this book, as it reported that Jack's sister Nin committed suicide (the woman died of a heart attack). Nicosia's is the far better bio, but it sags under its own bloated grandiosity. Brinkley was supposed to the Authorized Biography, but evidently that fell through. I feel his would've been the best. But we'll never know.

From the very beginning one is aware that Ms. Charters is sympathetic towards the hero, having seen him around while an undergrad and her thoughts while her grad school professor ignorantly disrespected him. Yet she doesn't present a great knight, but the very flawed human-being trying to create a new artistic. Despite the tragedy which he became, I couldn't put the book down. All she had to do was tell the story, and the unfolding itself would mesmerize. This Ann Charters did quite well. The only problem I had were with some of the variant spellings which she employed.

Definitely a commendable effort by Ms. Charters... I could invision myself as an observer of Kerouac's life experiences...heck...I thought I was standing right beside him...I would recommend this book for anyone interested about Kerouac...after all...he taught us ..."the joy of life is on the road and that we'll all be the same in the end...."

Although Kerouac was quite an interesting character, Charters gives little justice to this literary genius. She gives merely a string of events, adding no story to his life at all. In addition to that, Mrs. Charters does not describe some situations at all. The reader is left to wonder what truly happened in some instances, and this gives little justice to Jack's life. There were a few sentences were the author attempted to write in Jack's style, and fails miserably. I'm sorry to detract so much from Mrs. Charters, but she is no Jack Kerouac. Overall, the book isn't bad, and if you're really interested in Kerouac, it's not a bad place to start, but if you really want to dive into Kerouac's psyche and true genius, this is not the place to do it.