Kerouac, the Word and the Way: Prose Artist as Spiritual Quester [Hardcover]

Associate Professor Benedict F Giamo PhD (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 6, 2000

Jack Kerouac, a "ragged priest of the word" according to Ben Giamo, embarked on a spiritual quest "for the ultimate meaning of existence and suffering, and the celebration of joy in the meantime." For Kerouac, the quest was a sustained and creative experiment in literary form. Intuitive and innovative, Kerouac created prose styles that reflected his search for personal meaning and spiritual intensity. These styles varied from an exuberant brand of conventional narrative (On the Road, The Dharma Bums, and Desolation Angels) to spontaneous bop prosody (Visions of Cody.Doctor Sax, and The Subterraneans). Giamo’s primary purpose is to chronicle and clarify Kerouac’s various spiritual quests through close examinations of the novels. Kerouac began his quest with On the Road, which also is Giamo’s real starting point. To establish early themes, spiritual struggles, and stylistic shifts, however, Giamo begins with the first novel, Town and Country, and ends with Big Sur, the final turning point in Kerouac’s quest.

Kerouac was primarily a religious writer bent on testing and celebrating the profane depths and transcendent heights of experience and reporting both truly. Baptized and buried a Catholic, he was also heavily influenced by Buddhism, especially from 1954 until 1957 when he integrated traditional Eastern belief into several novels. Catholicism remained an essential force in his writing, but his study of Buddhism was serious and not solely in the service of his literary art. As he wrote to Malcolm Cowley in 1954, "Since I saw you I took up the study of Buddhism and for me it’s the word and the way I was looking for."

Giamo also seeks IT—"a vital force in the experience of living that takes one by surprise, suspending for the moment belief in the ‘real’ concrete grey everyday of facts of self and selfhood . . . its various meanings, paths, and oscillations: from romantic lyricism to ‘the ragged and ecstatic joy of pure being and from the void-pit of the Great World Snake to the joyous pain of amorous love, and, finally, from Catholic/Buddhist serenity to the onset of penitential martyrhood."

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Giamo traces Jack Kerouac’s search for spiritual salvation. . . . The author argues that Kerouac’s goal in all his fiction was enlightenment, blended with a transcendence that can allow a balancing of the physical and the spiritual. . . . [T]his book is filled with provocative ideas and sincere appreciation for the King of the Beats. It can be read with profit by anyone who wishes to get beyond the media hype of the Beat Generation in order to grapple with one of the United States’ most significant contemporary writers.”—Choice 

“Ben Giamo stresses the real cornerstone of Kerouac's  work. . . . It is a joy to read a book about Kerouac and his writings that doesn't sensationalize him, doesn't address him as a celebrity. Instead Giamo brings to the fore the aspects that would have attracted Gary Snyder, Philip Whalen, Allen Ginsberg and others, that Kerouac saw the daily pursuit of life as holy.”—Beat Scene

“Kerouac, the Word and the Way . . . offers insights into Kerouac’s life and writing. [It] is a detailed and comprehensive description of what Giamo calls ‘the various spiritual quests undertaken by Kerouac—as revealed by his novelistic writings.’”—Ann Charters, author of Kerouac: A Biography

 

“Ben Giamo digs deep and produces gold, the most intelligent and sensitive analysis of Kerouac’s oeuvre ever mined.”—John Sampas, executor, the estate of Jack Kerouac

 

“Readers will welcome this study because it makes use of new materials, building upon the existing critical foundation with insight, intelligence, and a rare humor poking through the critical facade.”—Regina Weinreich, author of The Spontaneous Poetics of Jack Kerouac: A Study of the Fiction

 

About the Author

Ben Giamo is an associate professor and chairman of the Department of American Studies at the University of Notre Dame. His previous books are The Homeless of Ironweed:  Blossoms on the Crag,  Beyond Homelessness: Frames of Reference (with Jeffrey Grunberg), and On the Bowery: Confronting Homelessness in American Society.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press; 1st edition (September 6, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0809323214
• ISBN-13: 978-0809323210
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,207,001 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 Essential Reading for Understanding Kerouac, January 4, 2001

By 

William Gargan (NYC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kerouac, the Word and the Way: Prose Artist as Spiritual Quester (Hardcover)

Giamo's study is the best critical book on Kerouac I've read to date -- and I've read them all! Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in Jack Kerouac and the Beat Generation.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Important Book, May 10, 2002

By 

MyComa - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kerouac, the Word and the Way: Prose Artist as Spiritual Quester (Hardcover)

With the field of Kerouac studies widening in the last ten years, an often overlooked aspect of his contribution is the spiritual nature of his art. Not to say that Kerouac hasn't before been regarded as a "religious" writer, but there has not yet been a thorough critical study of how spirituality and religion influenced Kerouac's fiction and poetry. Ben Giamo has broken a significant barrier with Kerouac, the Word and the Way. He uses The Dulouz Legend to explain Kerouac's spiritual progression, and the result is a strikingly unique study of Kerouac's fiction. By focusing primarily on the text, rather than on Kerouac myth, he shows us how spirituality manifested itself in Kerouac's novels, while linking the work itself to the inner struggles of a writer in search of meaning.

My only criticisms of this book are minor. First, Giamo doesn't give a strong enough definition of "Spirtuality." Any Kerouac reader would assume this term is a label for Kerouac's Catholicism/Buddhism, when in fact Giamo intends for it to be understood in broader terms: Not simply a search for salvation or enlightenment, but ultimately the search for understanding of self--the search for IT. Stating this more strongly would have provided a better context for the book.

Second, Giamo certainly digs deep into Kerouac's Buddhist studies and how they influenced his writing, but this same attention is not paid to his lifelong adherence to Catholicism. As he immersed himself in Eastern thought, seeking a path of enlightenment--even isolating himself from the world in this pursuit--Kerouac still acknowledged the importance of Christianity in his life. This is evidenced by the seeming dualism apparent in his "middle" novels. Giamo addresses the "split-self" of Kerouac, especially referring to Desolation Angels and Big Sur, but he manages to separate Kerouac's Christian and Buddhist beliefs, as though Kerouac went from one to the other with no blurring of the two in between. Really, The Dharma Bums is Kerouac's only novel that relies soley on Buddhist teachings. Nearly all of the others--excepting the early novels--portray a man attempting to blend the beliefs of East and West to create a unique sense of self.

Even so, this is an extremely important book. Giamo has opened the door to an area of Kerouac studies that has only been given passing reference. Kerouac, The Word and the Way, firmly establishes Kerouac as a Spiritual Artist--rather than an existential wanderer--and takes a major step in clarifying Kerouac's place as one of America's most important writers.