Big Sur
by Jack Kerouac
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Book Summary Information
Author: Jack KerouacForeword: Aram Saroyan
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1992-06-01
ISBN: 0140168125
Number of pages: 256
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780140168129
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of Big Sur
Book Review: An amazing book
Summary: 5 Stars
Big Sur is one of the most harrowing books ever written about alcoholism, mental illness, and fame. The demons that Jack Kerouac describes in this book will be nothing new to people who have read the previous novels in his autobiographical Dulouz Saga. Throughout all of his work, Kerouac was painfully honest about his problems with alcohol, his tendency towards manic depression and paranoia, and his inability to find joy or hope in anything for too long of a time. However, in Big Sur, one thing has changed. Kerouac's surrogate Jack Dulouz is now a famous writer -- an icon to young, wanna-be beatniks everywhere. Whereas previously Dulouz's breakdowns were, at least, only seen by his friends, he now finds his problems observed, it seems, by the entire world. Reeling from the sudden success of his novel "Road" (which, of course, is Kerouac's On the Road), Dulouz accepts an invitation to spend a few months at a cabin in Big Sur where he can get away from his new admirers (who, in a few bitingly humorous passages, are described as tracking him down at his mother's house, expecting to find a young hellion and becoming angered when they find the actual middle-aged, rather conservative Dulouz). Alone, Dulouz hopes to commune with nature but instead, he finds the crashing of the nearby surf to be oppressive and even imagines it as a voice condemning him for his many sins. As a result, Dulouz descends further and further into alcoholism and insanity before finally hitchhiking to a nearby town where he ends up romantically entangled with a truly horrific woman and coming face-to-face with his future fate if he doesn't change his ways. (Sadly, the fate that Dulouz tries to escape in this book would be the fate that would eventually claim Kerouac in reality.) Its a harrowing vision, one that is as readable as it is scary. Especially poignant is the knowledge that Kerouac pretty much wrote the book as the events were happening. When we see Dulouz go insane, its impossible to forget that Kerouac wrote this while going crazy himself. There's been a tendency to undervalue the literary worth of Jack Kerouac. While most critics will now grudgingly admit the importance of On the Road, his other works are often dismissed. Beyond a loyal following, many seem to agree with Truman Capote's unfair assessment of Kerouac's work -- "That's not writing. Its typing." Well, it is true that Kerouac's writing was basically a recording of the events of his life and, much like life, Kerouac's books often had a certain randomness to them. While it is incorrect to see that they lacked structure, it was a very subtle structure that demanded the reader search his words for the hidden meaning on their own as opposed to simply having Kerouac's themes spoon fed to them. What is often missed that if Kerouac was simply recording his life, he still did it with a talent and an honesty that elavated events that might have been dismissed as mundane or simply pathetic and instead, shaped them into a haunting portrait of what it was like to be lost in a country that seemed to regard that as a crime. Big Sur seems to serve as his answer to all of those who were too quick to automatically idealize the vision he put forth in On the Road. Its a book that everyone who claims to be imitating Kerouac's popular image should read. There was a lot more to Jack Kerouac's talent than just the media hype surrounding the so-called Beat Generation and Kerouac deserves better than to be remembered for only one (admitedly wonderful) book. Big Sur is one of the greatest American novels of the 20th Century and remains Jack Kerouac's most vibrant literary legacy. Unfortunately, he destroyed himself to create it.
Summary of Big Sur
"Big Sur's humane, precise account of the extraordinary ravages of alcohol delirium tremens on Kerouac, a suerior novelist who had strength to complete his poetic narrative, a task few scribes so afflicted have accomplished?others crack up. Here we meet San Francisco's poets & recognize hero Dean Moriarty ten years after On the Road. Jack Kerouac was a 'writer,' as his great peer W.S. Burroughs says, and here at the peak of his suffering humorous genius he wrote through his misery to end with 'Sea,' a brilliant poem appended, on the hallucinatory Sounds of the Pacific Ocean at Big Sur." ?Allen Ginsberg
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