Synopsis
The editor of Kerouac's final two novels offers a revealing portrait of Jack Kerouac and the intense, inner life that inspired his work, discussing his troubled youth, alcoholism, and homosexual relationships. 30,000 first printing. Tour.
Reviews
Jack Kerouac (1922-1969), the Beat novelist whose road adventures inspired a rebellious generation, was, according to this often startling, unflinching biography, a self-destructive alcoholic egomaniac who believed he was Shakespeare and Balzac in previous reincarnations, an amphetamine addict, a misogynist, an anti-Semite and a "homophobic homoerotic" who concealed his bisexual identity through gay bashing, both verbal and physical. Yet Amburn?biographer of Buddy Holly, Janis Joplin and Roy Orbison, and editor of two of Kerouac's novels (Desolation Angels; Vanity of Duluoz)?is not a debunker. This well-researched biography is filled with questionable claims: e.g., Kerouac is "one of the major novelists of the twentieth century"; "In popularizing Buddhism and redefining morality for a generation, [his] spiritual impact on America was one of the strongest since that of Cotton Mather." None of the Beats or their circle?Kerouac, Neal Cassady, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Norman Mailer?comes off well in Amburn's relentless cataloguing of uninhibited lives, sexual excesses, irresponsible behavior and self-promotion. Readers may find this biography tedious and exhausting. Photos. Author tour.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Although Kerouac lived in fear of full disclosure of his private life, particularly his erotic involvements with men, he made certain that biographers would know all, maintaining a meticulous archive and assuring Amburn, his editor for Desolation Angels (1965) and Vanity of Duluoz (1968), that his novels were autobiographical and all of a piece, like Proust's. In this highly detailed yet smoothly flowing biography, Amburn corroborates Kerouac's claim, linking his major works to specific events in his dizzyingly frenetic and conflictful life. As familiar as many of the stories about Kerouac and his muses and followers (including Neal Cassady, William Burroughs, and Allen Ginsberg) are, Amburn makes them new by illuminating previously unexplored facets of their complicated relationships. Writing explicitly and sensitively about Kerouac's subterranean self--his sexual escapades and alcoholism, the conflict between his fears and ambition, and his obsession with his late brother--Amburn also astutely examines Kerouac's role in popularizing Buddhism in the West and his resounding literary achievement: the creation of fiction that emulates "the natural music of the mind." Amburn's crisply drawn and provocative portrait fully conveys the paradoxes of Kerouac's hunger for life, burning creativity, and tragic self-destructiveness. Donna Seaman
Amburn, who has written on the lives of Roy Orbison, Janis Joplin, and Buddy Holly, here turns his attention to Jack Kerouac, whose novels he once edited at Coward-McCann. Centering on Kerouac's sexuality, Amburn's biography attributes much of the pain and unhappiness in the novelist's life to repressed homoeroticism, a thesis sure to stir debate among Kerouac scholars. The first biographer with access to Kerouac's archive, Amburn supports his position with evidence drawn from Kerouac's unpublished journals and diaries as well as from extensive interviews with those who knew him. In addition to documenting Kerouac's struggle with his own sexuality, Amburn's work sheds additional light on Kerouac's early years in Lowell and his long descent into alcoholism. Bound to be controversial, this thoroughly researched biography belongs in all literature collections.
-AWilliam Gargan, Brooklyn Coll. Lib., CUNY
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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