Customer Reviews

The Long Slow Death of Jack Kerouac

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This book would better be titled: A Short, Superficial, Almost Completely Unannotated Biography of Jack Kerouac and How Cool I Am by Jim Christy. To read this is to read about Jack Kerouac by the only man who claims to REALLY understand him. He gives no reason for you to believe this except his own allegations that it's true. He makes his own mistakes also (the song Beatnik Fly was recorded by "Johnny and the Hurricanes" not "Jay and the Hurricanes" for instance ). The ones that I saw were admittedly small but it led me to believe that there could be many more since most of his information is based on his own experiences and not even one remotely reliable source can be supplied. Lastly, he feels that he must defame other biographers,saying that Ann Charters book is "the worst" and that Nicosia,s Memory Babe should be read "under eyebrows raised high as they"ll go" If that is true then NOTHING in this book should be believed. The notes on the back of the jacket pretty much say it:"Kerouac thought of himself as a serious religious writer and never failed to stress this fact to anyone who would listen. Most didn't. Jim Christy did." And you had better believe old Jim but I sure don't know why.

Forget all the [junk] that most biographers scribble in their dark corners about perhaps the greatest writer of the 20th century (except for perhaps Blaise Cendrars) -- read this book and take a glimpse into Kerouac. Christy has given a great snapshot of the man that was Kerouac. Anyone who slags this book hasn't read it, let it roll around between their ears and finally digest the whole shooting match.

This is a great book!

Jim Christy's understanding and research of Jack Kerouac makes this book both insightful and provocative. Christy discusses Kerouac's Catholic, French Canadian background and how he feels it impacted his work. Throughout the book Christy interjects insightful and personal opinions about Jack Kerouac which puts a more human touch to what has become another icon of the month.

A must read if you are at all interested in the Beat Generation.

Highly recommended!!!!

I read this short book on jack kerouac in just 2 days(only a hundred pages or so). This little book gives a more complete picture of Kerouac than any other that I have read. Many books have came out on Kerouac in recent years--buy this one and forget about many of the others.

This book tackles the subject of Jack Kerouac. After reading this text, I found myself asking "Is that it?" These are literally the shortest chapters I have ever seen, with several of them spanning only 2 or 3 pages. Compared with the other biographies I've read, this one is too brief and, in a place or two, seems to draw primarily from heresay.

What I liked about this book was that it gave Kerouac a dimension of humanity. Too many biographies dissect their subjects with a mortician's instinct, and succeed in removing those people any trace of humanity they possessed in life - who they loved, hated, and what their failings were. For hard-core Kerouac fans, this book should be read, but only in addition to other Kerouac biographies to fill the holes in this one.

Christy offers an insightful and different look at Kerouac and his works than most biographies. He discusses what was important to Kerouac, such as religion, a topic often given only minimal treatment, and the literary acceptance he wanted but instead received infamy which pushed him along to the grave. Unfortunately, this excellent information is not really integrated into the biography but comes in the last few chapters. (Almost all biographical information about Kerouac's later years is also in Nicosia's Memory Babe.) For those dozen or so pages the book is well worth it!

You will benefit by remembering Jack's quote on back cover..for attribution..Only Gerald Nicosia's "memory Babe" commands the same literary status as this (fair,poignant,painful))treatment. See also his daughter Jan's...Train Song...she died very young,& her short life was..(negatively?) impacted by the "wildman"..ole Jack..of on the road...

Christy's book was obviously written for someone doing a Kerouac paper in their high school English class. This is the type of biography you wish had never been published. The fact that it is in print seems to validate what Christy has written. There is so little presentation of known fact--more hearsay and legend than anything else. For instance, Christy claims Kerouac's last words were, "It must have been the tuna fish." I'm shocked neither Charters nor Nicosia were able to dig up this information--but Christy was? Who will be the next self-proclaimed "Beat Researcher" to cash in on the Kerouac revival? This book is on par with "The Kerouac We Knew." Yet another shoddy attempt at exploiting Kerouac's celebrity.