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Mañana Means Heaven
In this love story of impossible odds, award-winning writer Tim Z. Hernandez weaves a rich and visionary portrait of Bea Franco, the real woman behind famed American author Jack Kerouac’s “The Mexican Girl.” Set against an ominous backdrop of California in the 1940s, deep in the agricultural heartland of the Great Central Valley, Mañana Means Heaven reveals the desperate circumstances that lead a married woman to an illicit affair with an aspiring young writer traveling across the United States.
When they meet, Franco is a migrant farmworker with two children and a failing marriage, living with poverty, violence, and the looming threat of deportation, while the “college boy” yearns to one day make a name for himself in the writing world. The significance of their romance poses vastly different possibilities and consequences.
Mañana Means Heaven deftly combines fact and fiction to pull back the veil on one of literature’s most mysterious and evocative characters. Inspired by Franco’s love letters to Kerouac and Hernandez’s interviews with Franco, now in her nineties and living in relative obscurity, the novel brings this lost gem of a story out of the shadows and into the spotlight.
When they meet, Franco is a migrant farmworker with two children and a failing marriage, living with poverty, violence, and the looming threat of deportation, while the “college boy” yearns to one day make a name for himself in the writing world. The significance of their romance poses vastly different possibilities and consequences.
Mañana Means Heaven deftly combines fact and fiction to pull back the veil on one of literature’s most mysterious and evocative characters. Inspired by Franco’s love letters to Kerouac and Hernandez’s interviews with Franco, now in her nineties and living in relative obscurity, the novel brings this lost gem of a story out of the shadows and into the spotlight.
240 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2013
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621 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews
October 31, 2013
The Other Side of the Road - Jack Kerouac's On The Road is a landmark, iconic book in American literary history. It was the first book to articulate post World War II "youth culture." It helped kick off a revolution that is still evolving. It signifies freedom to explore one's world wherever it leads, to join with other free spirits in some quest for enlightenment, to break free of middle-class domesticity. Kerouac's style is to take in all experience, to keep learning, to go with karma, stay on the road forever. A crucial section of the book tells of his romantic interlude with The Mexican Girl, called Terry. Jack and Terry meet in a bus on the way from Selma to Los Angeles. They talk, they groove on each other, they shortly make love in a seedy LA hotel room. It's the ideal beat relationship: all fireworks, no strings, no regrets when it ends. Jack moves on. Terry disappears. Only she doesn't. For reasons of his own, Tim Z. Hernandez, like Terry the child of a San Joaquin Valley Chicano family, decided to find her. He searched for years. Finally he located her one mile down the road from his own house. She was 90, health and memory failing. Tim interviewed her, and more important her son Albert, who helped him fill out the story. The result is Mañana Means Heaven, The Mexican Girl from her point of view. Terry's real name was Bea Franco. The story proceeded much as Kerouac told it. But it has a different spin. The other side of the beat quest to find America. Bea came from an abusive, poverty-stricken family, straight out of Steinbeck's labor camps. Hernandez makes her world both brutal and lyrical, a world the reader comes to fear and love at the same time. The young Bea sees the dreamy gabacho Jack as her way out of a crushing oppressive existence. She'll go with him to New York and start a new life with Jack and her 2 young children. Hernandez tracks the playing out of this dream like the poet he is. His Bea comes across as smarter, shrewder, quicker, more practical and at the same time more visionary than the rather feckless, lightweight charming and handsome Jack. As the two spend time picking grapes in the Valley to make enough money to escape to New York, Jack becomes detached at the same time as his dreamy sensitivity continues to attract Bea. She's never met a man like him, and he becomes the ticket to a new life. At the same time, Bea's hard-headed realism begins telling her it's never going to happen. Underneath it all, she knows she has to get out, but at the same time can't forbear playing the affair through to its heartbreaking end. The reader, of course, knows how it will end, so his heart cannot be broken. Hernandez manages to break it anyway. By the time the book reaches its final third, you're so much a part of Bea you can no longer maintain distance from her. And you may remember when you yourself played out some dream you knew to be doomed from the start but you had to follow it to its end. This book presents the clash of cultures between 2 different versions of America, and in so doing tells us a great deal about ourselves and the era we live in. It's timeless, and at the same time contemporary. In a moving coda, Hernandez interviews Bea, now in her 90's. It could hardly be more ironic that Bea Franco died in August, 2013, just before Mañana Means Heaven was released. She got to hold the advance copy in her hands. Just as she once held Jack. Somehow, this simple gesture heals the heart. Bea's life has not been in vain. And the reader has gone on a journey he or she will remember forever.
September 7, 2014
Amazing research and that it all came together near where the author lived. I enjoyed reading about life in the Central Valley where I lived for many years. As a nurse, the farm workers and their families were my patients. Nothing has changed much. Maybe a toilet in the field. A very hard life. These hard working families will always have my respect!
February 17, 2014
I decided to read this book because it takes place in the Central Valley of CA in the 1940s, and I was intrigued by the idea of Jack Kerouac hooking up with a married migrant worker who is desperate to escape the cultural and financial bonds that keep her shackled to an abusive husband and poverty-ridden life. Ultimately I was most impressed by the writer's ability to create characters that are multidimensional and incredibly human. Although many reviewers refer to this as a "love story," I tend to disagree. Rather it is a story of difficult, heart-rending choices and decisions made as human emotions clash with a reality that contains both cruelty as well as treasure.
October 28, 2017
A lovely and captivating story of love.
more review to follow...
more review to follow...
December 28, 2013
My book finally arrived & I began the read.
I felt sad ~ the real Bea had died in August~before the book was actually out & about.
I love the photograph of her holding the book in her hands.
This book was such a great read ~~ as I read page 76 & 77
"They trudged up the slope toward City Terrace, zigzagging the narrow roads past the cramped houses on Boulder, then Malabar Street, until finally they reached Blanchard. "
I immediately stopped & pick up my copy of "On The Road" & re read the entirety of the 'Terry The Mexican Girl', which isn't actually titled that in On The Road.
I know these streets from living in Los Angeles~ my childhood~90063~ my adulthood ~~ all my life~~ as well as in her suburbs, Burbank, Covina & 90032.
This book is so wonderfully written ~ when I fell asleep~ I dreamt of the camps & old Los Angeles & a greyhound bus ambling it's way back to Fresno. And of the conversation & tension of getting to know someone who will change your life ~but how you are not yet sure....but you shall let it happen ~that dream that disappears when you awake.
That is how goode this book is.
Mr. Hernandez, not only FOUND Bea Franco, who is Jack Kerouac's Terry, he filled in the time & depth of those 15 days.
It is really unbelievable that she never knew of her identity in this book & HOW VERY MANY scholars of Jack have talked about her....yet the mystery remained.
But now this book seems to fill in what may or may not have happened.
It is yes fiction but it is BASED on the historical record such as it was.
Their days together.
And when Jack leaves, his book continues.
I felt this book as I read it..
Jack quoting William Saroyan on page 142 ~ of course!
And reading Bea's letters to Jack, here ~ Mr Hernandez quotes them.
The book begins & ends on October the 13th, 2010 ~~
her actual birthday.............
What a wonderful read.............as Jack Kerouac's is one of my people, one of my hero's ~~ one of the authors I feel we should all know about....as he can inform us....
What Mr Tim Z. Hernandez has done in Manana Means Heaven, is give us a bit more about the time & place that was California
in Autumn of 1947.
The details and words are just right.
When Bea finally realizes something intrinsic about her Father &
I shall quote Mr Hernandez from page 214
" But now she knew better.
It has nothing to do with leaving & everything to do with returning.."
I said ~~ that is it!!..........................
This book is just exactly what I expected.
You do not have to read "On the Road" ~~ to find this book interesting & a very goode read~~It stands on it's own.
Mr. Hernandez has given us a gift, by finding Bea Franco & her family, who now know their place in the literary record, and by writing this book~~~ his knowledge of the towne Bea lived in~because he lived there as well & his tenacity to solve the mystery ~~ make the entirety of the read ~~~ WONDERFUL.
Read this book.
Read this book.
Read this book.
if I may ~~
so you understand the beauty of Mr. Hernandez
& the title of this book.........................
Page 79
"Guitars tinkled.
Terry & I gazed at the stars together & kissed.
"Manana" she said, " Everything'll be alright tomorrow,
don't you think ~Sal~honey man??"
"Sure, baby~Manana".
It was always Manana.
For the next week that was all I heard~~Manana
a lovely word
& one that probably means Heaven"
Jack Kerouac
On The Road
I felt sad ~ the real Bea had died in August~before the book was actually out & about.
I love the photograph of her holding the book in her hands.
This book was such a great read ~~ as I read page 76 & 77
"They trudged up the slope toward City Terrace, zigzagging the narrow roads past the cramped houses on Boulder, then Malabar Street, until finally they reached Blanchard. "
I immediately stopped & pick up my copy of "On The Road" & re read the entirety of the 'Terry The Mexican Girl', which isn't actually titled that in On The Road.
I know these streets from living in Los Angeles~ my childhood~90063~ my adulthood ~~ all my life~~ as well as in her suburbs, Burbank, Covina & 90032.
This book is so wonderfully written ~ when I fell asleep~ I dreamt of the camps & old Los Angeles & a greyhound bus ambling it's way back to Fresno. And of the conversation & tension of getting to know someone who will change your life ~but how you are not yet sure....but you shall let it happen ~that dream that disappears when you awake.
That is how goode this book is.
Mr. Hernandez, not only FOUND Bea Franco, who is Jack Kerouac's Terry, he filled in the time & depth of those 15 days.
It is really unbelievable that she never knew of her identity in this book & HOW VERY MANY scholars of Jack have talked about her....yet the mystery remained.
But now this book seems to fill in what may or may not have happened.
It is yes fiction but it is BASED on the historical record such as it was.
Their days together.
And when Jack leaves, his book continues.
I felt this book as I read it..
Jack quoting William Saroyan on page 142 ~ of course!
And reading Bea's letters to Jack, here ~ Mr Hernandez quotes them.
The book begins & ends on October the 13th, 2010 ~~
her actual birthday.............
What a wonderful read.............as Jack Kerouac's is one of my people, one of my hero's ~~ one of the authors I feel we should all know about....as he can inform us....
What Mr Tim Z. Hernandez has done in Manana Means Heaven, is give us a bit more about the time & place that was California
in Autumn of 1947.
The details and words are just right.
When Bea finally realizes something intrinsic about her Father &
I shall quote Mr Hernandez from page 214
" But now she knew better.
It has nothing to do with leaving & everything to do with returning.."
I said ~~ that is it!!..........................
This book is just exactly what I expected.
You do not have to read "On the Road" ~~ to find this book interesting & a very goode read~~It stands on it's own.
Mr. Hernandez has given us a gift, by finding Bea Franco & her family, who now know their place in the literary record, and by writing this book~~~ his knowledge of the towne Bea lived in~because he lived there as well & his tenacity to solve the mystery ~~ make the entirety of the read ~~~ WONDERFUL.
Read this book.
Read this book.
Read this book.
if I may ~~
so you understand the beauty of Mr. Hernandez
& the title of this book.........................
Page 79
"Guitars tinkled.
Terry & I gazed at the stars together & kissed.
"Manana" she said, " Everything'll be alright tomorrow,
don't you think ~Sal~honey man??"
"Sure, baby~Manana".
It was always Manana.
For the next week that was all I heard~~Manana
a lovely word
& one that probably means Heaven"
Jack Kerouac
On The Road
August 28, 2013
Honestly, I had no interest in reading this book. When entering to win books, I skipped this one because the title and cover were boring to me. Goodreads was acting up that day. I don't know how I was entered to win, but I was, and I make it a point to read every book I win. And I'm so glad I did!
This was definitely an interesting book. I couldn't help but want to know what happened next. That's one thing that sucked about the ending. I wanted more! What happened next?!
There were few things I didn't like about the book. I didn't like the amount it used the G.D word; was that really necessary? And not knowing Spanish, I had to use my translator app to find out what some of the characters were saying at times.
All in all, it was a pretty good book. Definitely one that'll make me think the next time I run across a book that doesn't "look" interesting, "never judge a book by it's cover" ;)
This was definitely an interesting book. I couldn't help but want to know what happened next. That's one thing that sucked about the ending. I wanted more! What happened next?!
There were few things I didn't like about the book. I didn't like the amount it used the G.D word; was that really necessary? And not knowing Spanish, I had to use my translator app to find out what some of the characters were saying at times.
All in all, it was a pretty good book. Definitely one that'll make me think the next time I run across a book that doesn't "look" interesting, "never judge a book by it's cover" ;)
February 27, 2014
Beautiful and heartbreaking. Tim has somehow inhaled Kerouac's writing style and sometimes I almost got confused as to who was writing what. But Tim is far more understanding of a young woman's heart and soul than Jack ever was, and I loved that new dimension - looking at "Jackie" through a young mother's 1947 eyes. Beautifully written, full of truth, full of America in the longago, full of what it was like to be Hispanic in California in 1947, it's a short novel, but it's a big novel.
February 5, 2014
It was an enjoyable read, but not one that I couldn't put down. In the beginning, it tended to ramble quite a bit about the couple doing sex, drugs, and alcohol. Similar to Keroac's ramblings in "On the Road". I must say the sex scenes are rather hot,though.
October 25, 2018
My favorite part of On the Road was 'The Mexican Girl'. This is a sort of reimagining from Bea (Terry's) point of view. The author did many interviews with the real 'Terry' and read and used some of the letters they exchanged. The dialogue was a little corny at times, but was probably fairly accurate for the time. I guess the 40's just sound a little corny now ha. The book is kind of sappy but I unapologetically like some sappy stuff. I enjoyed the depiction of the agriculture camps. It certainly shed more light on what the area was like for Mexicans working in California at the time. My dad lives in Madera and I have spent some time there. This fictional account (like in On The Road) takes place in the Fresno/Madera/LA area. My dad lives a little out of town and I used to have to walk through field after field to get into town. I have a soft spot for Kerouac and I have been researching immigration so it was a good read even if the writing was a little sentimental.
May 11, 2020
I recommend reading where the "Mexican girl" is mentioned in Jack's book before reading this, and I recommend re-reading it when you are trying to understand Bea and Jack in this novel.
This book dug a hole so deep in my chest and filled it with something indescribable. Beautifully written, showing so much respect to all the characters mentioned in the book. There is something uniquely sweet about the amount of time Tim Hernandez put into studying Bea's story of a young and impulsive romance between her and Jack Kerouac. This story is gripping in the sense that you begin to wonder at the short, silent stories that the matriarchs hold to themselves as a sweet memory for themselves. Do not skip the afterword! It felt like I couldn't breathe while reading the afterword, it is so well done. I don't even know what grabbed me in the afterword, but it is magic. Thank you, Tim. We are all in love with Beatrice Franco.
This book dug a hole so deep in my chest and filled it with something indescribable. Beautifully written, showing so much respect to all the characters mentioned in the book. There is something uniquely sweet about the amount of time Tim Hernandez put into studying Bea's story of a young and impulsive romance between her and Jack Kerouac. This story is gripping in the sense that you begin to wonder at the short, silent stories that the matriarchs hold to themselves as a sweet memory for themselves. Do not skip the afterword! It felt like I couldn't breathe while reading the afterword, it is so well done. I don't even know what grabbed me in the afterword, but it is magic. Thank you, Tim. We are all in love with Beatrice Franco.
March 26, 2023
Came across this book by accident while searching the library shelves for another one. It’s well worth the read as it’s based on the true story of The Mexican Girl in Jack Kerouac’s novel, On the Road. Hernandez does a lot of research and eventually finds the “Mexican Girl” who is now in her 90’s.
The book inspired me to listen to the audio book of On the Road, wonderfully narrated by Tom Parker. I had never read anything by Kerouac, but glad I listened to On the Road after reading Manana Means Heaven. Both books are wonderfully, yet differently written and show the reality of the migrant workers in 1940’s America, as well as the “beat” generation that Kerouac was part of. I highly recommend both.
The book inspired me to listen to the audio book of On the Road, wonderfully narrated by Tom Parker. I had never read anything by Kerouac, but glad I listened to On the Road after reading Manana Means Heaven. Both books are wonderfully, yet differently written and show the reality of the migrant workers in 1940’s America, as well as the “beat” generation that Kerouac was part of. I highly recommend both.
February 3, 2018
In the canon of literature written about Jack Kerouac, "Manana Means Heaven" deserves special recognition. Award-winning writer and poet Tim Z. Hernandez brings to life the mysterious “Mexican Girl” who Kerouac fell in love with in his famous novel “On the Road”. Their romance was intense and short-lived, fraught with impossible odds, and ultimately ended with broken promises and broken hearts, and Bea Franco was left behind, disappearing into the campos and small towns of the San Joaquin Valley of California. But Hernandez, after years of diligent research, brings her back to the foreground and in eloquent prose tells her story in the way only a poet can do.
November 13, 2019
Great book! I really enjoyed reading this novel because I was able to relate so much to it. First of all, I am from the Central Valley, and I was born in Guanajuato, Mexico where Bea the protagonist's family came from. I know the city of Irapuato Mexico which brought me even closer to the novel. I knew right away what to expect as I read and after completing the first chapter I could not put the book down. I really recommend the novel.
October 3, 2019
Bitter sweet love story of a migrant worker’s affair with Jack Kerouac. So sad also to read about the struggles and conditions the workers have to endure to earn some meager wages. This story takes place in the 1940’s but not much has change for the immigrants that work the fields and keep the food chain going for this country.
August 31, 2020
Tim Hernandez remains one of my favorite writers, if only for his amazing ability to pull history out of a shadow, and shade in a famous story into a fully realized character. The story of Bea Franco and Jack Kerouac is a beautiful one, and even more so because Hernandez once again found the impossible forgotten story where everyone had overlooked it.
October 29, 2021
Aching beautiful story
Of love and hard a work in the fields of California, the Central Valley tie in of Jack Kerouac who loved her and she loved him more. Worth every moment you spend with characters.
Of love and hard a work in the fields of California, the Central Valley tie in of Jack Kerouac who loved her and she loved him more. Worth every moment you spend with characters.
June 19, 2017
I was surprised I ended up liking this as much as I did considering the subject matter. Very well written.
February 10, 2018
An engaging story. A little bit of a look at migrant workers in the California San Joaquin Valley in the 1940's.
February 11, 2018
Beautifully written, and such an interesting story.
August 13, 2018
A bit clunky in places but overall an interesting and enjoyable read.
September 23, 2018
Written beautifully. Felt plot driven.
November 27, 2019
I really recommend this novel. Hernandez does a great job writing about the struggles Latin women and men has to go through in California during 1940's
May 8, 2021
A beautifully crafted documentary fiction novel about "the Mexican girl" from Kerouac´s On the Road.
January 3, 2023
nice try filling in lost part of "On the road"...!
May 22, 2024
If you like Jack Kerouac or "On The Road," then this is a must-read as a companion.
Inspiring, deep, heartbreaking, and everything in between.
Bea's story is really something.
Inspiring, deep, heartbreaking, and everything in between.
Bea's story is really something.
November 17, 2013
Tim Z. Hernandez bases his novel Mañana Means Heaven on the story of Be a Franco, the young Chicana woman Jack Karouac meets while on his way to Los Angeles from San Francisco, during his travels across the United States, and who later appears in his famed novel On the Road as Terry, or "the Mexican girl."
The title of the novel is taken directly from one of the passages of Karouac's novel, but this is Bea's story, not Jack's. That is made perfectly clear from the beginning. Hernandez takes Karouac's short chapter, and following the same timeline, cleverly weaves in Bea's background and breaths life into the woman by exposing the extreme emotional and familial circumstances that pushed her into opening up to a man like Jack, a gavacho "college boy," during that particular time in her life. A time that lasted but a blink in time, but one that changed both of their lives irrevocably.
Meeting Jack gives Bea hope while she is trapped in what seems like a hopeless and desperate situation that Hernandez utilizes to build tension throughout his novel. Franco's short time with Jack changes her. It gives her the determination and resiliency that may have been there all along, but that she learns to use to become a woman who expects better for and from herself. For Jack, much later that moment in time becomes the stepping stone that helps to propel his career as a writer when the Paris Review publishes his short story "Terry, the Mexican Girl," and well, the rest is history.
If Franco and her family are well researched by Hernandez, then so are the historical details. Hernandez takes the reader to a post WWII Los Angeles that comes alive with all of its paranoia and multicultural prejudices. But nothing comes alive more than the San Joaquin Valley and the plight of the pickers -- the smell and paranoia in the tent camps, the fear of immigration raids, the hatred for the implacable owners and the need for work, the child workers, the stultifying poverty, and through Bea, the desperation.
Hernandez utilizes mañana, tomorrow, as the main theme of his novel. The word mañana represents many different things to the different people who inhabit the novel. To Bea and her brother Alex it represents the possibility of a future and the realization of a dream. To the pickers in Selma it represents the basics, work, food, a warm place to stay. If not today, tomorrow things will work out. To Jack it is always a way to gain time, to learn more, to see more. To little Albert, it comes to represent lack of money, a lack of hope. However, Hernandez also uses partings, abandonment, leaving and returning as a secondary and more subtle theme throughout the novel.
As an award winning poet and writer familiar with Franco's cultural background, Hernandez was already well equipped to write a story about Karouac's muse. However, Hernandez's research into her life and his insights into the person Franco was, into the woman she became, takes her story beyond that of a myth.
"Mañana," she said. "Everything'll be all right tomorrow, don't you think, Sal-honey, man?"
"Sure, baby, mañana." It was always mañana. For the next week, that was all I heard --- mañana, a lovely word and one that probably means heaven. -- On the Road by Jack Kerouac
The title of the novel is taken directly from one of the passages of Karouac's novel, but this is Bea's story, not Jack's. That is made perfectly clear from the beginning. Hernandez takes Karouac's short chapter, and following the same timeline, cleverly weaves in Bea's background and breaths life into the woman by exposing the extreme emotional and familial circumstances that pushed her into opening up to a man like Jack, a gavacho "college boy," during that particular time in her life. A time that lasted but a blink in time, but one that changed both of their lives irrevocably.
Meeting Jack gives Bea hope while she is trapped in what seems like a hopeless and desperate situation that Hernandez utilizes to build tension throughout his novel. Franco's short time with Jack changes her. It gives her the determination and resiliency that may have been there all along, but that she learns to use to become a woman who expects better for and from herself. For Jack, much later that moment in time becomes the stepping stone that helps to propel his career as a writer when the Paris Review publishes his short story "Terry, the Mexican Girl," and well, the rest is history.
If Franco and her family are well researched by Hernandez, then so are the historical details. Hernandez takes the reader to a post WWII Los Angeles that comes alive with all of its paranoia and multicultural prejudices. But nothing comes alive more than the San Joaquin Valley and the plight of the pickers -- the smell and paranoia in the tent camps, the fear of immigration raids, the hatred for the implacable owners and the need for work, the child workers, the stultifying poverty, and through Bea, the desperation.
Hernandez utilizes mañana, tomorrow, as the main theme of his novel. The word mañana represents many different things to the different people who inhabit the novel. To Bea and her brother Alex it represents the possibility of a future and the realization of a dream. To the pickers in Selma it represents the basics, work, food, a warm place to stay. If not today, tomorrow things will work out. To Jack it is always a way to gain time, to learn more, to see more. To little Albert, it comes to represent lack of money, a lack of hope. However, Hernandez also uses partings, abandonment, leaving and returning as a secondary and more subtle theme throughout the novel.
As an award winning poet and writer familiar with Franco's cultural background, Hernandez was already well equipped to write a story about Karouac's muse. However, Hernandez's research into her life and his insights into the person Franco was, into the woman she became, takes her story beyond that of a myth.
July 18, 2020
This book, loaned to me by a really smart and learned lady, affected me way more than I expected. Based on “the Mexican Girl” in Jack Kerouac’s 1947 novel, “On the Road”, this story is thoroughly researched and conceived by its author/poet Tim Z Hernandez, who was surprised to discover that he was a neighbor of the now elderly “Mexican Girl”, Bea Franco. Hernandez ran across some letters in a NYC library written to Kérouac from Bea, eventually tracks her down, and creates a look at migrant farm workers, young love, courage, despair and hope. A reader can’t help but feel every emotion described so evocatively.
August 11, 2023
The best part is the post-epilogue, where Hernandez himself details how he went about tracing the real Bea. Naturally, when he does find her (else there wouldn't be a book in the first place), Bea's family is very wary about him.
It takes Hernandez a lot of work to convince them that Bea is actually depicted in Kerouac's work. He shows them copies of her letters sent to Kerouac now available in public archives. He shows them "On the road" passages, and bits of film adaptations.
Finally convinced that it is Bea, her family raises an important question: How come people go around writing stories about others without letting them know, without giving them a chance to reply, or at least acknowledging their presence? Hernandez does not have an answer and simply says that maybe those other people could not find Bea for her comment and opinion.
"But you [Hernandez] did find us."
Kerouac's "On the road" is cemented as a pillar of modern American literature. Countless books, reviews, and theses have been written about it. And not a single one of them before Hernandez bothered to truly look for Bea. It is not about not being able to find people. It is about not being willing to do so.
It takes Hernandez a lot of work to convince them that Bea is actually depicted in Kerouac's work. He shows them copies of her letters sent to Kerouac now available in public archives. He shows them "On the road" passages, and bits of film adaptations.
Finally convinced that it is Bea, her family raises an important question: How come people go around writing stories about others without letting them know, without giving them a chance to reply, or at least acknowledging their presence? Hernandez does not have an answer and simply says that maybe those other people could not find Bea for her comment and opinion.
"But you [Hernandez] did find us."
Kerouac's "On the road" is cemented as a pillar of modern American literature. Countless books, reviews, and theses have been written about it. And not a single one of them before Hernandez bothered to truly look for Bea. It is not about not being able to find people. It is about not being willing to do so.
July 3, 2014
Interesting study in how the description of place affects the reader's experience. No, the freeways did not exist in the late 1940s....
Here are the questions we discussed at the Reading the Western Landscape Book Club at the Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden.
• Do anomalies in logic or facts demean the story?
• Were you able work through the Spanish inserted in the story?
• Tell how the swift shifts in the point of view, (Beatrice or Jack within the same paragraph) helped or didn’t help tell the story.
• Was the author able to tell Beatrice’s story? Why or why not? What parts of her story seemed the most authentic?
• What are the actions driven by poverty?
• Who was your favorite character? And why?
• What do you remember about reading On the Road?
• What does the title mean?
• What did Beatrice learn through the story?
• What made the landscape the best character in the book? True? Not True?
• What would you change about the book?
Here are the questions we discussed at the Reading the Western Landscape Book Club at the Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden.
• Do anomalies in logic or facts demean the story?
• Were you able work through the Spanish inserted in the story?
• Tell how the swift shifts in the point of view, (Beatrice or Jack within the same paragraph) helped or didn’t help tell the story.
• Was the author able to tell Beatrice’s story? Why or why not? What parts of her story seemed the most authentic?
• What are the actions driven by poverty?
• Who was your favorite character? And why?
• What do you remember about reading On the Road?
• What does the title mean?
• What did Beatrice learn through the story?
• What made the landscape the best character in the book? True? Not True?
• What would you change about the book?
May 7, 2014
Oh, how I wish I could write a book like this. Hernandez writes with insight, clarity, passion, and empathy about the love that blooms between two lonely people, Jack and Bea, during the few weeks that they spend together after meeting on a bus. The characters are based on Sal Paradise and Terry, the Mexican Girl, whom Jack Kerouac wrote about in his famous book On the Road, and they are brought to life in this partly fictionalized tale.
At first the story unravels slowly but kept my interest with its vivid descriptions of Los Angeles in the 1940s and the migrant labor worker camps in the San Joaquin Valley during that same period. Jack and Bea dream of a future together, but their efforts to attain that goal are complicated by her familial obligations(she has two small children)and their lack of money. They set out to work in the fields and earn the funds they need to start a new life in New York City. Bea's yearning for a better life for herself, and especially for her children, is heartbreaking.
This is a beautiful story of love, hope, and yearning for . . . heaven.
At first the story unravels slowly but kept my interest with its vivid descriptions of Los Angeles in the 1940s and the migrant labor worker camps in the San Joaquin Valley during that same period. Jack and Bea dream of a future together, but their efforts to attain that goal are complicated by her familial obligations(she has two small children)and their lack of money. They set out to work in the fields and earn the funds they need to start a new life in New York City. Bea's yearning for a better life for herself, and especially for her children, is heartbreaking.
This is a beautiful story of love, hope, and yearning for . . . heaven.
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