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Come and Join the Dance
Joyce Johnson's first novel (published under her maiden name, of course). A novel from the Beat generation.
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1961
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About the author
Joyce Johnson
102 books103 followersBorn Joyce Glassman to a Jewish family in Queens, New York, Joyce was raised on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, just around the corner from the apartment of William S. Burroughs and Joan Vollmer Burroughs. Allen Ginsberg and Kerouac were frequent visitors to Burroughs' apartment.
At the age of 13, Joyce rebelled against her controlling parents and began hanging out in Washington Square. She matriculated at Barnard College at 16, failing her graduation by one class. It was at Barnard that she became friends with Elise Cowen (briefly Allen Ginsberg's lover) who introduced her to the Beat circle. Ginsberg arranged for Glassman and Kerouac to meet on a blind date.
Joyce was married briefly to abstract painter James Johnson, who was killed in a motorcycle accident. From her second marriage to painter Peter Pinchbeck, which ended in divorce, came her son, Daniel Pinchbeck, also an author and co-founder of Open City literary magazine.
Since 1983 she has taught writing, primarily at Columbia University's MFA program, but also at the Breadloaf Writers Conference, the University of Vermont and New York University. In 1992 she received an NEA grant.
At the age of 13, Joyce rebelled against her controlling parents and began hanging out in Washington Square. She matriculated at Barnard College at 16, failing her graduation by one class. It was at Barnard that she became friends with Elise Cowen (briefly Allen Ginsberg's lover) who introduced her to the Beat circle. Ginsberg arranged for Glassman and Kerouac to meet on a blind date.
Joyce was married briefly to abstract painter James Johnson, who was killed in a motorcycle accident. From her second marriage to painter Peter Pinchbeck, which ended in divorce, came her son, Daniel Pinchbeck, also an author and co-founder of Open City literary magazine.
Since 1983 she has taught writing, primarily at Columbia University's MFA program, but also at the Breadloaf Writers Conference, the University of Vermont and New York University. In 1992 she received an NEA grant.
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
February 23, 2021
The Beat Generation was a literary movement started by a group of authors whose work explored and influenced American culture and politics in the post-war era. The bulk of their work was published and popularized throughout the 1950s. (Source: Wiki)
Jack Kerouac, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Allan Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs are well known authors of this group. There are female authors too--Joyce Johnson and Hettie Jones for example.
Come and Join the Dance is Joyce Johnson’s first novel. It was when she was writing this that she first met Kerouac on a blind date arranged by Ginsberg. She came later to write a memoir about her relationship with Kerouac--Minor Characters: A Beat Memoir.
Women of the Beat Generation were of the opinion that they might live life as freely and aimlessly as men. This is reflected in the writing of the book.
I easily relate to the central character of the story, Susan Levitt. With the opening of the novel, she is twenty, taking her final exams at Barnard College. The setting is thus New York City. She gets up and leaves without completing the exam. She sees no point in finishing it. She is not interested in that kind of life where her studies are leading her. While she doesn’t know what she wants to do, she does know what she does not want to do. I don’t think this is strange at all. I think many students think similarly. Most don’t have the guts to alter course. It is easier to do nothing, to simply continue along the steady and sure path once taken. I watched Susan with curiosity and admiration. I would never have had the guts to do what she does. This isn’t to say what she does is smart.
The book is about both one’s choice of carrier and men.
To like this book, I do not think one need judge what is right and what is wrong--there is no one right choice. It is simply fun to remember the ideas toyed with when young. To like the book one must be able to understand that desire to live a life freely, to let yourself go and not be held back by always doing what you should do. Are you tantalized with the idea of throwing to the wind all the rules that limit our choices, rules that prevent us from doing what we really want to do? Life is so often made of compromises. Here we can play with the idea of not making compromises and simply doing what one wants to do.
The language used is simple. It put me back in the 1950s. Many lines make me smile. Why? Because I could easily relate to that which is said. One does not get into Susan’s head. She reacts instinctively. She does not philosophize. She does not theorize. She is at that point where she is setting limits.
I like the ending a lot. It’s not fake. It’s real.
Dina Pearlman reads this just as it should be read. The intonations used for the different characters are perfect. Five stars for the narration.
I enjoyed this book a lot. The characters are believable. It allows you to think about choices not made yourself.
************************
*Come and Join the Dance 4 stars
*In the Night Cafe TBR
*Bad Connections TBR
Jack Kerouac, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Allan Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs are well known authors of this group. There are female authors too--Joyce Johnson and Hettie Jones for example.
Come and Join the Dance is Joyce Johnson’s first novel. It was when she was writing this that she first met Kerouac on a blind date arranged by Ginsberg. She came later to write a memoir about her relationship with Kerouac--Minor Characters: A Beat Memoir.
Women of the Beat Generation were of the opinion that they might live life as freely and aimlessly as men. This is reflected in the writing of the book.
I easily relate to the central character of the story, Susan Levitt. With the opening of the novel, she is twenty, taking her final exams at Barnard College. The setting is thus New York City. She gets up and leaves without completing the exam. She sees no point in finishing it. She is not interested in that kind of life where her studies are leading her. While she doesn’t know what she wants to do, she does know what she does not want to do. I don’t think this is strange at all. I think many students think similarly. Most don’t have the guts to alter course. It is easier to do nothing, to simply continue along the steady and sure path once taken. I watched Susan with curiosity and admiration. I would never have had the guts to do what she does. This isn’t to say what she does is smart.
The book is about both one’s choice of carrier and men.
To like this book, I do not think one need judge what is right and what is wrong--there is no one right choice. It is simply fun to remember the ideas toyed with when young. To like the book one must be able to understand that desire to live a life freely, to let yourself go and not be held back by always doing what you should do. Are you tantalized with the idea of throwing to the wind all the rules that limit our choices, rules that prevent us from doing what we really want to do? Life is so often made of compromises. Here we can play with the idea of not making compromises and simply doing what one wants to do.
The language used is simple. It put me back in the 1950s. Many lines make me smile. Why? Because I could easily relate to that which is said. One does not get into Susan’s head. She reacts instinctively. She does not philosophize. She does not theorize. She is at that point where she is setting limits.
I like the ending a lot. It’s not fake. It’s real.
Dina Pearlman reads this just as it should be read. The intonations used for the different characters are perfect. Five stars for the narration.
I enjoyed this book a lot. The characters are believable. It allows you to think about choices not made yourself.
************************
*Come and Join the Dance 4 stars
*In the Night Cafe TBR
*Bad Connections TBR
March 10, 2020
aah, the first Beat novel written by a woman. thrown into obscurity by the male-dominated literary canon, of course. while this might not be much more than a proto-feminist story, it’s still interesting to see how progressive it seems with respect to gender expectations, as opposed to “seminal” Beat texts (ironically enough).
February 28, 2022
This is the story of a young girl named Susan’s attempts to go against what a ‘good girl’ should do academically and in her love life, as she is about to graduate from Barnard College in 1955 New York City. This is considered the first beat novel by a female writer and was published in 1961.
Whether this story is ‘beat’ or not is not essential to my opinion of the book. In one sense, this is just a timeless story of a 22-year-old woman ready to graduate from college and has no idea what she wants next in her life or even what she wants now. This situation has occurred to many a young man or woman in the 19th and 20th century during any era. However, I do agree that the existence of the Beat movement of the time affected Susan’s options to take in her personal rebellion against the expectations of her parents and society, especially in her approach to sex.
I like that Susan’s actions concerning her graduation and her love/sex life don’t seem to have a principled basis; she seems more of a female rebel without a cause. I also enjoyed that her parents aren’t portrayed as caricatured conformists but as loving, if dull, parents wanting the best for her. I thought the scenes with them were fairly poignant.
I also enjoyed Johnson’s writing style. It was clear without being overly simple and the dialogue seemed real. My only criticism is that the story seemed slight, more of a long short story than a novel, and without major drama or a conclusive ending. However, I accept that the ending was appropriate for the story. A 4-star read for me.
Whether this story is ‘beat’ or not is not essential to my opinion of the book. In one sense, this is just a timeless story of a 22-year-old woman ready to graduate from college and has no idea what she wants next in her life or even what she wants now. This situation has occurred to many a young man or woman in the 19th and 20th century during any era. However, I do agree that the existence of the Beat movement of the time affected Susan’s options to take in her personal rebellion against the expectations of her parents and society, especially in her approach to sex.
I like that Susan’s actions concerning her graduation and her love/sex life don’t seem to have a principled basis; she seems more of a female rebel without a cause. I also enjoyed that her parents aren’t portrayed as caricatured conformists but as loving, if dull, parents wanting the best for her. I thought the scenes with them were fairly poignant.
I also enjoyed Johnson’s writing style. It was clear without being overly simple and the dialogue seemed real. My only criticism is that the story seemed slight, more of a long short story than a novel, and without major drama or a conclusive ending. However, I accept that the ending was appropriate for the story. A 4-star read for me.
October 4, 2015
This is a short book, but a charming one. I never knew this until recently, when a friend recommended this book to me, but Joyce Johnson was the first woman novelist of the Beat generation. Reading about that time from a female perspective puts it in a whole new light for me (and almost makes me a bit embarrassed that I never asked earlier - where are the women writers from this period?)
Really, really recommended, especially for those who have read Kerouac or are interested in that period.
Really, really recommended, especially for those who have read Kerouac or are interested in that period.
August 7, 2019
Johnson is best known for "Minor Characters," her very fine memoir of the Beat Generation and in particular her relationship with Jack Kerouac; but "Come and Join the Dance" is an interesting coming-of-age novel in this context. It's on the slight side, and short, but it's sincere and in the end, moving in its small way. Recommended.
March 28, 2020
(2.5 stars)
A modest, short novel about the kind of quietly disaffected young white folks of the '50s who slid into Beatnikville and maybe hippiedom further down the road. Clunky dialogue, frustratingly listless characters, and a wan style of storytelling occasionally flecked with some strong lines and passages. I've been told that Joyce Johnson's non-fiction is better than her fiction, and some day I would like to read her memoir of her time with the Beats.
A modest, short novel about the kind of quietly disaffected young white folks of the '50s who slid into Beatnikville and maybe hippiedom further down the road. Clunky dialogue, frustratingly listless characters, and a wan style of storytelling occasionally flecked with some strong lines and passages. I've been told that Joyce Johnson's non-fiction is better than her fiction, and some day I would like to read her memoir of her time with the Beats.
July 11, 2020
Meandering story of adolescent angst, this is as the first novel by this woman of the beat generation. I highly recommend her book Minor Characters and look forward to reading others. I love her wrting but this was more of a mood piece. College students might relate.
May 17, 2020
The reason the rating is so high it's because it wasn't like on the road
March 5, 2020
Come and Join the Dance on yleisen käsityksen mukaan ensimmäinen naisen kirjoittama beat-romaani ja juuri tämä tekee kirjasta kiinnostavan. Teoksessa valmistumisen kynnyksellä oleva Susan etsii itseään ja avainta hyveellisen keskiluokkaisuutensa kahleisiin.
Johnson kuvaa tietyllä aitoudella sitä houkutusta, jota vapautta edustavat beat-renttuäijät edustivat. Susanissa on myös paljon samaa kuin Kerouacin alter egoissa: väliinpitämättömyys, merkityksen etsintä ja naivi herkkyys. Kirjan rakkausintressi Peter taas seurailee monella tapaa beat-ikoni Neal Cassadyn magneettista sekoilua hyvin laimennetussa muodossa.
Kirjan paras puoli onkin selvästi, että se tuo esille toisenlaisen, usein piiloon jäävän, näkökulman. Kirjoitettuna tarinana se taas tuntuu vähän raakilemaiselta kuten esikoiskirjat usein.
Johnson kuvaa tietyllä aitoudella sitä houkutusta, jota vapautta edustavat beat-renttuäijät edustivat. Susanissa on myös paljon samaa kuin Kerouacin alter egoissa: väliinpitämättömyys, merkityksen etsintä ja naivi herkkyys. Kirjan rakkausintressi Peter taas seurailee monella tapaa beat-ikoni Neal Cassadyn magneettista sekoilua hyvin laimennetussa muodossa.
Kirjan paras puoli onkin selvästi, että se tuo esille toisenlaisen, usein piiloon jäävän, näkökulman. Kirjoitettuna tarinana se taas tuntuu vähän raakilemaiselta kuten esikoiskirjat usein.
September 10, 2020
Well, I am not quite sure - maybe I am too old for this book? Maybe if I`d read it when I was between 12 and 16, I`d have found it interesting?
Yesterday, I was so glad when I eventually got it and was able to read it. Today, I am extremely disappointed; it is dull, with stodgy dialogues and characters so bland that you forget them the moment you`ve finished reading the book. Nothing remarkable, just a piece of mediocre literature. The only explanation for it can be her relatively young age when she wrote it.
I`ve read some other things by Johnson, and I am under the impression that she often repeats herself. Of all her books, I find Minor Characters the most interesting, and not because of Jack Kerouac.
Yesterday, I was so glad when I eventually got it and was able to read it. Today, I am extremely disappointed; it is dull, with stodgy dialogues and characters so bland that you forget them the moment you`ve finished reading the book. Nothing remarkable, just a piece of mediocre literature. The only explanation for it can be her relatively young age when she wrote it.
I`ve read some other things by Johnson, and I am under the impression that she often repeats herself. Of all her books, I find Minor Characters the most interesting, and not because of Jack Kerouac.
July 19, 2023
I haven't read a coming of age story about someone graduating college, so it was refreshing and relatable for me from the beginning. There wasn't a whole lot of substance to it; I was expecting something more profound(though I didn't hate the simplicity). I wanted a more impactful ending for the characters, but I think the open-ended-ness speaks to that chapter of their lives.
July 23, 2022
Not quite a child, not yet an adult; Joyce Johnson captures the angst and fear of early adulthood so perfectly. It is a shame that she used such unlikable characters to do so.
Best appreciated when in the throes of your early twenties.
Best appreciated when in the throes of your early twenties.
June 3, 2025
one of the great beat novels. made me painfully nostalgic for a part of my life that isn't really over, that painful transition between the end of schooling and the beginning of adulthood. tender and touching and truthful
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May 30, 2022Best generation novel about a young woman finding herself, or whatever. I think I read it a few years too late, 18 year old me would have loved this!
June 1, 2024
jack kerouac for girls :P
February 7, 2025
A 3.5 for how it was a reading for my lit class.
February 13, 2025
really loved the way joyce johnson was able to sum up these human tendencies that feel complex into just a few words by being radically honest. punchy little book
January 21, 2016
I had a few questions along the way - a few points where I was unsure what she was (literally) trying to say on the micro level. Macro level? Artfully composed. The lines of tension are perfect. Our protagonist is a universal character coming of age at a time when women weren't allowed to come of age. This is something most female readers will be able to relate to, understand, and dissect for both personal growth and literary commentary to bring into the Beat conversation. A.K.A. Susan is a very well-formed character (though, this may be because Susan is Joyce) and the novel is worthy of its status.
May 11, 2015
I kinda feel like I wrote this book in another life. But it wasn't what I expected at the same time, which is actually pretty wonderful. Joyce Johnson is enthralling to me, and this might be one of my favorite Beat books I've read so far. I love Jack Kerouac, but this book actually gave a meaning behind the Beat actions. It wasn't just to rebel or find the next kick, it was to find who you are, who you love, and what you love. It is devastatingly beautiful.
August 16, 2014
This is a quiet novel and an easy read. The narration is almost too subtle, but the story, on the surface only about sex, delves into a woman coming into her own.
January 22, 2021
Cute coming of age, has beat influence. Needed more guts.
August 17, 2012
Favorite book of all time. Need an original version.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews