The Mad Cub

by Michael McClure

The Mad Cub, first published in 1970, is a sexual coming-of-age tale, illustrating how a puzzled human cub turns into a transcendent lion-being of the universe. We see the novel's sensitive, artistic protagonist at age 12, feeling overweight and unable to compete with the other boys; at 18, as a college student involved with several women and hanging out in jazz clubs while experimenting with drugs and alcohol; and in his 20s, as a poet and playwright of the Beat era, tripping on peyote and trying to reconcile a series of affairs with the love for his wife and baby daughter. Written in the spontaneous bop style of some of author Michael McClure's fellow Beats, the novel has been called painfully honest in its recounting of adolescent memories.

228 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1998

About the author

Michael McClure (born October 20, 1932 in Marysville, Kansas) is an American poet, playwright, songwriter, and novelist. After moving to San Francisco as a young man, he found fame as one of the five poets (including Allen Ginsberg) who read at the famous San Francisco Six Gallery reading in 1955 rendered in barely fictionalized terms in Jack Kerouac's Dharma Bums. He soon became a key member of the Beat Generation and is immortalized as "Pat McLear" in Kerouac's Big Sur.

Reviews

[Reese Forbes · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mildly interesting stream-of-conscienceness collegiate happenings of a drug user.
Lots of sex but little sexiness.