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Jack Kerouac

Big Sur Paperback – June 1, 1992

by Jack Kerouac (Author), Aram Saroyan (Foreword)

398 ratings

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A poignant masterpiece of wrenching personal expression from the author of On the Road and The Dharma Bums

In this 1962 novel, Kerouac's alter ego Jack Duluoz, overwhelmed by success and excess, gravitates back and forth between wild binges in San Francisco and an isolated cabin on the California coast where he attempts to renew his spirit and clear his head of madness and alcohol. Only nature seems to restore him to a sense of balance. In the words of Allen Ginsberg, Big Sur "reveals consciousness in all its syntactic elaboration, detailing the luminous emptiness of his own paranoiac confusion."

Print length

256 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Penguin Books
Publication date

June 1, 1992
Dimensions

5.1 x 0.45 x 7.73 inches
ISBN-10

0140168125
ISBN-13

978-0140168129
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"In many ways, particularly in the lyrical immediacy that is his distinctive glory, this is Kerouac's best book . . . certainly, he has never displayed more 'gentle sweetness.'"
--San Francisco Chronicle

"Kerouac's grittiest novel to date and the one which will be read with most respect by those skeptical of all the Beat business in the first place."
--The New York Times Book Review

"Big Sur is so devastatingly honest and painful and yet so beautifully written....He was sharing his pain and suffering with the reader in the same way Dostoyevsky did, with the idea of salvation through suffering."
--David Amram

About the Author

Jack Kerouac(1922-1969), the central figure of the Beat Generation, was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1922 and died in St. Petersburg, Florida, in 1969. Among his many novels are On the Road, The Dharma Bums, Big Sur, and Visions of Cody.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Books (June 1, 1992)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 256 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0140168125
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0140168129
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 6.2 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.1 x 0.45 x 7.73 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #245,963 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,920 in Classic American Literature
- #2,884 in Small Town & Rural Fiction (Books)
- #6,986 in Classic Literature & Fiction

Customer Reviews:
398 ratings

Customer reviews

5 star		62%
4 star		21%
3 star		7%
2 star		7%
1 star		4%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Robert Berman

I'm Now Too Old To Enjoy This Book

Reviewed in the United States on July 3, 2020

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Reading about a man in an alcoholic stupor facing west towards the waves of the Pacific Ocean doesn't have the resonance it may have had when I was twenty. Kerouac sprinkles some pseudo Eastern philosophical thoughts here and there, but it's basically about a man's wasted life. The Civil Rights Movement, the anti-war movement, and other social causes were emerging during the time of the writing of Big Sur. The hero of the book has decided to just get drunk every night instead of working to make any changes within himself or society. These thoughts of mine reflect a man in his sixties. If I read this in my teens or early twenties would I have thought the protagonist was just about the coolest dude in the world? That I can't say.

11 people found this helpful

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allisone

I first read all of Kerouac's published works in my ...

Reviewed in the United States on August 15, 2016

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I first read all of Kerouac's published works in my twenties. Now I am revisiting some of his works in my mid forties. This is the third book of his I chose to read again. I read it a few times in my twenties and found it powerful but depressing. It is less depressing to me now that I have experienced more in life. I would put this as one of his most powerful and important works and essential reading for anyone wanting to discover or re-discover Kerouac's writing.

35 people found this helpful

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ali

Critical review of Big Sur

Reviewed in the United States on May 21, 2017

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A true reflection of California ethos, Jack Kerouac’s Big Sur, captures the disillusionment at the end of the beat movement in northern California. Continuing in the tradition of his successful, semi-autobiographical novel, On the Road, Big Sur continues the story of aging beatnik Jack Duluoz, and his existential battle with depression, nihilism, and alcoholism along the scenic shores of Big Sur California. This struggle also reflects a similar decline in the life of the author who died shortly after its publication from complications of alcoholism.
In a Waldenesque approach, Kerouac captures Duluoz’s desperate retreat into the wilderness of northern California, in an attempt to escape civilization and reclaim meaning and order in his life. Despite the protagonist’s best efforts, he struggles to detach himself from the hypocrisy and alienation that haunts him. One might think, echoing the footsteps of Thoreau, the sublimity of Big Sur, would inspire a sense of peace and unity in the perceiver, however, Jack is reminded of the transitory and ephemeral nature of life and mankind, plunging him into an existential crisis. Thus, the terrain of California, like the state itself, embodies many contradictory symbols.
Throughout the narrative Jack confronts, and in many instances, deconstructs the transcendent values of his peers, caught between the nostalgic innocence of his past and the destructive and oppressive numbness of his present. In spite of his best effort Jack struggles to connect to the environment of Big Sur or the people around him once he returns to civilization. Jack’s alienation is a powerful theme in the novel, driving him to peruse perverse and superficial relationships with his fellow beatniks. Many of the character’s struggle with sexual oppression, despite the liberal values projected by the movement. Jack’s paranoid and prevalent homophobia, and his swinger lifestyle, represent manifestations of his own hidden homoerotic desire for his best friend Cody. Jacks desire and need for intimacy leads to the sexual objectification and exploitation of the women in the novel, this abusive behavior is popular among the other male beatniks. Many of the female beatniks silently suffer, while the male characters justify their sexual infidelity using narcissistic and hedonistic reasoning.
Jack constantly invokes philosophical and religious texts, tracing the intellectual stream of ideas that nourishes the sexual and social attitudes of his characters. It is evident that Jack is extremely educated, he pulls from a variety of sources both eastern and western. Likewise, many of his characters represent a diverse array of cultures and perspectives brought together by the Romance of the beat movement. This mixture of ideas also reflect the melting pot community of California culture as a whole.
However, Jacks behavior belies a darker side to the idealism of the beat movement as it faced decline in the mid-sixties, leaving its members disheartened. Jack’s alcoholism, represented as the norm in his social circles, plays an important part in his mental and physical decline. Likewise, his interpersonal relationships are dysfunctional and in some cases downright abusive.
I think this book is essential to any California canon, many of these themes and values are relevant to contemporary California culture. This book represents the values of a not so distant past, and the Romantic and progressive attitudes of the characters is still alive and well. I think the criticism of those values is priceless in terms of its relationship to modern ethos, narcissism and rugged individualism being popular topics. From his nihilistic perspective, Jack is able to analyze the idealism behind the beat or hippie movement, portraying it through a true unglamorized lens. On the other hand, Jack is unreliable in the sense that he fails to recognize the narcissism and cynicism that undermines his own perspective. In this sense, Jacks nihilism is portrayed as a natural progression of his perverse idealism, yet, it is not the answer to the issues that torment him. In a sense, the character’s failure lies in their inability to establish any real connection to the environment or the people around them. Free love is represented as an extension of the oppressive patriarchal system not an escape from it. True strength, love, and unity cannot be achieved through the selfish, destructive, and individualistic motives of the male characters. It is important to recognize that these anxieties are not new or unique to the present generation, they have evolved as part of popular movements in California’s cultural past. Jacks idealistic language is pure, it is his actions that are corrupt and self-destructive. The failure lies in his determination to drown the contradictions in alcohol, drugs, and sex, rather than reforming the movement. While so many other novels and media outlets glamourize this aspect of the California past, Kerouac offers a refreshing contrast, depicting the grit and conflict with powerful accuracy. This book is most certainly a wonderful addition to any library and an eye opening read for anyone interested in California’s past.

19 people found this helpful

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Fred Derry

Kerouac didn't write about Social Issues... THANK GOD!!!

Reviewed in the United States on June 29, 2021

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Someone wrote a review saying that Jack Kerouac should have written about social issues instead of what he wrote about here, which was life, death, nature, going mad, all the things he wrote of in ON THE ROAD which made him more famous and artistic and amazing than all those writers he complained went overly political ("wrote about The Bomb") and lost their artistic curve...

"Who would build a cabin up there but some bored but hoary old adventurous architect maybe got sick of running for congress and one of these days a big Orson Welles tragedy with screaming ghosts a woman in a white nightgown'll go flying down that sheer cliff."

This is one of his most amazing books, and is the only thing he wrote centered on right after his fame, and in these pages is a book about not being famous but being (and feeling) half alive in the most beautiful location on earth, Big Sur Ca...

His writing makes you feel right there, feeling as the author does, almost like being underground... The first few chapters about wandering lost and afraid in the heavy fog and being paranoid that he could drop to the sea at any time is more intense than any suspense yarn ever written...

What Big Sur is about is the author reluctantly kicking the booze habit and eventually suffering DT's and how it doesn't matter that he's in the most beautiful location on the earth because hell is a state of mind, and what he sufers here is hell for the author and heaven for the Kerouac fanatic, which this is mostly catered to, and is considered the sequel to On The Road since this is the ONLY thing he wrote about what happens after having written that book, including memories of Steve Allen and Hollywood, and other pop culture mentions like the above Orson Welles paragraph (Jack was smitten with Citizen Kane)...

Kerouac's writing has never been so crazy and wonderful... Someone wrote that it feels too rambling but... to critique Jack on rambling when his style of spontaneous prose is all about rambling... well... You simply have to be a fan to enjoy the bad trip of BIG SUR...

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Top reviews from other countries

Nick

Delivery was faster than that witch from that anime film

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 29, 2018

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Banging man this shizzle went straight to my kindle DAAAAAYUM th future man it’s like zap zap zap you get me

8 people found this helpful

A. Reader

Hard read but worthwhile

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 2, 2018

Verified Purchase

I’d forgotten how hard Kerouac is to read. He writes as he thinks and tries to pinpoint feelings and words and because of this his writing can be labyrinthine and incredibly hard to follow. Having said that his imagery and language are stunning, moving and immediate.

6 people found this helpful

J. Fox

Classic book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 25, 2021

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Classic book I bought to read on holiday. Good read and didn't disappoint. Felt like I was travelling with the author and learnt a lot about California.

Amazon Customer

Big Sur.....Big Read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 25, 2018

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You would want to be in the humour for Kerouac .... Not something that would often happen. Still I am glad I read it through it was interesting but not enjoyable .

2 people found this helpful

Fidelina

Brilliant as ever

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 29, 2016

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Loved this but then I love everything Jack Kerouac wrote and this did not disappoint. His ability to describe every day things in such a unique and delightful way is second to none.

4 people found this helpful