Why Kerouac Matters; The Lessons of On the Road (They're Not What You Think)

Leland, John

ISBN 10: 0670063258 / ISBN 13: 9780670063253

Published by Viking Press, New York, 2007

About this Item

Near Fine in a Near Fine jacket, clipped, bumped at the spine edges. Blue paper on the boards, pushed at the spine edges. Square and firmly bound, gift inscription on the front endpaper, clean otherwise. Leland's analysis of Kerouac's beloved novel, arguing it holds up as "a primer for male friendship and the cultivation of traditional family values.".

Seller Inventory # 14652

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Why Kerouac Matters; The Lessons of On the Road (They're Not What You Think)
• Publisher: Viking Press, New York
• Publication Date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0670063258
• ISBN 13: 9780670063253
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First Edition.
• Condition: Near Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine
• Seller catalogs:
  • Literary Criticism

About this title

Synopsis

Legions of youthful Americans have taken On the Road as a manifesto for rebellion and an inspiration to hit the road. But there is much more to the book than that. In Why Kerouac Matters, John Leland embarks on a wry, insightful, and playful discussion of the novel, arguing that it still matters because it lays out an alternative road map to growing up. Along the way, Leland overturns many misconceptions about On the Road as he examines the lessons that Kerouac?s alter ego, Sal Paradise, absorbs and dispenses on his novelistic journey to manhood, and how those lessons?about work and money, love and sex, art and holiness? still reverberate today.

About the Author

John Leland is a reporter for The New York Times and former editor in chief of Details magazine. He is the author of Hip: The History.