Customer Reviews

Mexico City Blues

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
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It took me a while to get beyond the Beat myth and see these poems for what they are--some of the most joyful, goofy and affecting writings of the last century. Jack wrote all 242 choruses--one per notebook page--over six weeks in 1955. His improvised word-jazz was at its peak; the poems are fresh and spontaneous but rarely sloppy (try it yourself if you don't believe me). The Buddhist leanings are a little simple-minded, but simplicity is part of the point. In layout and verbal inventiveness Jack's more experimental than most poets writing today. He combines a love for made-up words and language as pure sound with a lyrical directness that you find more often in pop songs than modern poetry. Hearing Jack read some of these on the Steve Allen record made me realize how rare a thing his poems achieved: sentiment, experiment, tenderness, peace. A moving companion to On the Road.

Jack Kerouac wanted to be known as a jazz poet and with this poem he proves that he is. Mexico City Blues is one of my favorite Kerouac books and a lot of fun to read.

The 242 Choruses are free-spirited and spontaneous, almost like they've been written just before you turn the page. If you've read and enjoyed "On the Road" or "The Dharma Bums" pick this one up and enjoy.

A little Miles Davis, John Coltrane, or Charlie Parker playing in the background will add a whole new dimension. Sweet.

"..Fifty pesos
3 Cheers Forever
It's beautiful to be comfortable
Nirvana here I am.."

I remember when I first stumbled across this book in the early 90's- it was like Christmas came twice that year. You see, I had thought that I had read absolutely everything published by Kerouac, prose and poem. I didn't know this existed, Wow! It is like one long, magnificent blues or jazz riff of the written word. It is a true blues composition because it has genuine soul. The more I think about it, it just might be the best thing that he ever did.
I know this is going to sound outrageous, but the only comparable book of American poetry I can even think of comparing this to would be Whitman's _Leaves of Grass_. Whitman and Kerouac both sang of the same grass roots, mystical, America. And it's still out there, if you shake your mind free of the preconceptions and the [junk]....

Mexico City Blues shocked and moved me. The freedom with which Kerouac takes his writing, inventing words and splattering images, envys me as an aspiring poet. I have tried to imitate his style but finally realized that only Jack can write like Jack. The poems contained on these pages are some of the greatest I have ever read and reading them is like slowly devouring an entire banquet.

I have been a Kerouac fan for a long time, but it was a couple of years after reading most his novels that I was able to get into his poetry. "Pomes all sizes", for example, sat unread on my bookshelf for some time. "Mexico City Blues" is what really turned me on to his poetry and made me able to appreciate it. I was able to go back and read his other petry with new eyes. This book is fantastic. Read it out loud to yrself, the man had a natural knack for rhythm. Great book.

a mix of cultures... musical styles.. not to say of alcohol, morphine, etc... Jack fell sick on his trip to Mexico city, and he's looking for healing, salvation- i believe he found it, with all the shots of morphine he received at the hospital , with the mexican pulque and tequilla , and other substances .. regardless it is a masterpiece of poetry. play some "bird" in the background and enjoy!

"And I am only an Apache -- Smoking Ashy -- In Old Cabashy -- By the Lamp!"

Kerouac was a master with words and the rythm of the human voice, his words beatifully crafted are written in a way that you have to read it allowed, a book you'll want with you every where if you appreciate anything about poetry

I find most of Kerouac's prose writing on the depressing side. Sadness and more sadness. He starts out with romantic hopes that get dashed, over and over, by reality, in novel after novel. When the world fails him, he reaches for sky, for religion, be it Buddhist or Catholic.
In contrast, there's a lot of pure delight in living in Mexico City Blues. Another writing persona emerges in this book and in much of his other poetry. His play with words suggest a joyful kittenish play with life far from his usual world weariness.
This is not to say that Mexico Blues is all jokes and fun. Kerouac in the poems is trying to figure things out and save himself as in his novels, and by extension save us. Christianity, Buddhism, and art--especially jazz and poetry--become keys to salvation. It's one long poem, actually, and it's seriousness of purpose compares with Pound's Cantos. Both books are obscure in places, and both attempt to integrate material not usually found in poetry. Both are works of a writer in exile in a foreign country and thus international. Pound looks to Confucianism while Kerouac looks to Buddhism.

Good men who live have karma of a dove. It is 242 choruses, 242 poems. As is everything written by Kerouac, it is autobiographical. How can Mexico have a positive association in Beat history when William Burroughs killed his wife there in a William Tell experiment? Anything by Kerouac was edited and promoted by Allen Ginsberg and for that reason alone a book of poems with Mexico in the title is of interest.

Thinking of comfortable thoughts is what modern society has branded loafing is a line in one of the poems. Zen provides much of the impetus for the collection of poems. Kerouac's work manages to create an atmosphere of tropical vegetation and light. The work is free-form and jazz-like.

Automatic writing? Well, maybe not automatic writing precisely. Certainly the word-play and the fluidity remind the reader of Gertrude Stein. (Mention Gertrude Stein and here we are at chorus 31.)

I like the prose better, but I like the idea of the book and the arrangement. The Beats stood for blessedness and freedom. MEXICO CITY BLUES is an appropriate manifestation of Beat ideology. Fifty first Chorus says America is a permisible dream, a Whitmanesque expression.

This is a celebration of other people. I count Gregory Corso, William Carlos Williams, Oscar Wilde, Alexander Pope, Benjamin Franklin, William Shakespeare, Dostoevsky, the aforesaid Gertrude Stein, Charley Parker, Nin and Ma, Pa or Leo Alcide Kerouac, brother Gerard, Thurber, Baudelaire, Jolson, Miles, Sarah Vaughn, Chagall, Whitman, Melville, Mark Twain, Einstein, Plato, Moses, Aristotle, Joe Louis, Spinoza, James Huneker, Alfred Knopf, H.L. Mencken, David, Picasso, Jesus, Proust, Freud, Glenn Miller, Allen Ginsberg, St. Francis, Siddhartha, Virgin Mary.

This book of jazz poems inspired me along with Charlie Parker's music to paint a painting with 242 11"x14" canvasses-one for each chorus-each canvas uses the same four elements(black caligraphy from an early hard cover edition, white from the cover's background, a red circle for beat poetry and a blue circle for jazz) yet each is different the way a jazz musician improvises on a melody line. A must read for all lovers of the Beats and Jack in particular.