Customer Reviews

Memory Babe: A Critical Biography of Jack Kerouac (Penguin Literary Biographies)

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Chronologically, from birth to death, author Nicosia tells Kerouac's life story with unflinching honesty and utmost respect. Blessed with a sharp memory, very early on Jack's childhood friends nicknamed him "Memory Babe" and that is where the book got its name. Packed with fascinating details and exquisitely written, this book needs to be discovered by a younger generation of readers.

Many of us alive today have heard of Jack Kerouac but I doubt few know the details of his tragic life. That he remains the voice of a generation and a literary icon goes without saying. Kerouac was a physically beautiful but emotionally flawed man with a tormented spirit. He spent his life as man and writer trying to prove that "the past is the root of the future, and that a man cannot live without the continuity of both." Jack remembered everything he heard, as if words were sacred and his mind was a sponge. Despite his many flaws, he always paid "exquisite attention to the sound of language."

Even as he mapped new territory as a writer, Kerouac was adrift as a man. As the first spokesman for the "beat" generation, he perfected that voice with guilt, self-doubt, and self-punishment. This biography clearly states Jack's definition of "beat": "beat down, beat up, all-tired-out." Still, his words were always carefully chosen. Word by word, Kerouac carefully created phrases to express time, place, emotion, and man's senses, communicating deep meaning. His writing was full of symbolism and visions, allegory and veiled reality, profanity and parody, as he groped his way with prose towards his own death. For his time, Kerouac's verbal ingenuity was unsurpassed.

Personally, his charismatic male persona disguised a quicksilver child, mischievous and unpredictable. As he aged, Jack became a brooding, paranoid, hard drinking drug user, insecure in his sexuality and prone to alcoholic blackouts. As addiction wrecked his health, his light slowly drowned out and he became a lonely and despairing figure. But for decades in between youth and death, this trusting, shy, socially awkward man became a literary legend.

Jack Kerouac rubbed shoulders with Jackson Pollock, Allen Ginsberg, and every jazz great of his day. He was published by several of the major New York publishing houses. His prose and poetry were unprecedented and have not been successfully imitated since. He died young, never fully realizing the effect of his mind and his work on subsequent generations.

Gerald Nicosia has penned THE definitive biography of Kerouac. From letters, journals, tapes, interviews, and Jack Kerouac's books themselves - all faithfully recorded in a detailed bibliography - the author has skillfully dissected the life of the "beat" generation's strongest voice. The result is both scholarly and deeply personal, touching and disturbing. It should be required reading in every college and university, and a must have book for any reader curious about Kerouac and his time.

I have read and own virtually everything that Jack Kerouac has written, and most of his biographies, and believe that this is the best one, by far. This is the most bang for your buck, I would say this book in hardcover should be worth about $50 to the true Kerouac fan. If anyone truly "understands" Jack (as much as anyone, especially someone this brilliant and complex can be completely understood), it's Gerald Nicosia, a great writer in his own right. I hope to meet him someday to thank him for this wonderful book. The Diamond Sutra = Compassion.

Of the two best-known Kerouac biographies -- the other being Ann Charters' -- Memory Babe is by far the more scholarly. Challenging and difficult, Gerald Nicosia's Memory Babe still entertains. Memory Babe is a treasure-trove, but not for the light reader.

Memory Babe is in a rare category. This book accomplishes two things simultaneously that individually are rarely possible. First, it is an authoritative, definitive biography about one of the most influential people of the 1900s -- Jack Kerouac. Second, it is written in the kind of masterful style usually reserved only for great novelists. It is a biography that is also a work of art, just as a famous novel is a story that is also a work of art. In both cases, the reader's life is influenced -- spiritually and morally -- while the reading itself becomes an enlightening experience. The reader cannot help but forget they are reading a biography, so detailed, interesting and superbly crafted is the writing. When the reader remembers they are reading a biography, they are in awe at the years of painstakingly complete research that obviously preceded the final product. Enjoy reading about the life a profound man. Enjoy reading about him as told by a talented author -- Gerald Nicosia.

I've read pretty much everything on Kerouac and the Beats ever written for several years. This is by far the best bio. His whole life is covered in the utmost detail..Good work Gerald Nicosia!

I have read alot of biographies on Kerouac, but this one doesnt even compare to the rest. This book is full of details. I mean, minute details, with input and interviews from obscure people (as well as the prominent) in Jack's life. Buy it, read it, be moved!

When was the last time you read an almmost-800 page book and wanted it to keep going at the end? That was my experience with Memory Babe: A Critical Biography of Jack Kerouac. If you love Kerouac - which I do, as evidenced by my writing The Beat Handbook: 100 Days of Kerouactions, a book answering the question, 'What would Kerouac do?' - this is a must-read. Nicosia skillfully balances attention to detail with an interesting story to provide the reader with a comprehensive yet critical look into the life of one of America's greatest writers. This is a challenging and scholarly work, one that shouldn't be undertaken lightly. You won't be sorry if you take up the challenge.

I am a huge fan of Jack Kerouac's work and reading about his life was such a thrill. I literally could not put the book down, it made me love, hate, pity, and marvell at Jack Kerouac the author as well as the real person.After completing the biography I actually shed a tear or two, that's how moved I was.

I've read just about everything that's been published about Kerouac, and while I've yet to read a truly satisfactory Kerouac biography, I think this one's the best, though it should be read along with Ann Charter's almost as good book.

Memory Babe is probably the most complete Jack Kerouac biography published. Filled to the brim with information about Kerouac and his writing, it also gives the sense that the author had an affinity for Kerouac. This book also differs in that it does not consist of blind hero worship of Kerouac, but reports Kerouac's faults, failures, and in sad fashion, his alcoholism. Even more satisfying is the fact that Nicosia concedes that even Kerouac wrote bad novels once in a while. The only faults in this book are a lack of photos, and occasional continuity screwups, while not severe are annoying. Overall, I repeat my asertion that Memory Babe is the best Jack Kerouac biography published, even better than Ann Charter's biography, Kerouac.