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Beat Generation
Beat Generation is a play about tension, about friendship, and about karma—what it is and how you get it. It begins one fine morning with a few friends, honest laborers some of them, some close to being down-and-out, passing around a bottle of wine. It ends with a kind of satori-like reaffirmation of the power of friendship, of doing good through not doing, and the intrinsic worth of the throwaway little exchanges that make up our lives.
Written in 1957, the same year that On the Road was first published, and set in 1953, Beat Generation portrays an authentic and alternate 1950s America. Kerouac's characters are working-class men and women—a step away from vagrants, but not a big step. Their dialogue positively sings, suggesting jazz riffs in their rhythm and content, and Kerouac, like a master composer, arranges it to magical effect. Here is the heart and soul of the beat mentality, the zeitgeist that blossomed over the decades and eventually culminated in the counter-culture of 1960s America. It's a spirit that still lives.
Written in 1957, the same year that On the Road was first published, and set in 1953, Beat Generation portrays an authentic and alternate 1950s America. Kerouac's characters are working-class men and women—a step away from vagrants, but not a big step. Their dialogue positively sings, suggesting jazz riffs in their rhythm and content, and Kerouac, like a master composer, arranges it to magical effect. Here is the heart and soul of the beat mentality, the zeitgeist that blossomed over the decades and eventually culminated in the counter-culture of 1960s America. It's a spirit that still lives.
120 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 1992
13 people are currently reading
800 people want to read
About the author
Jack Kerouac
360 books11.6k followersJean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac, known as Jack Kerouac, was an American novelist and poet who, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was a pioneer of the Beat Generation.
Of French-Canadian ancestry, Kerouac was raised in a French-speaking home in Lowell, Massachusetts. He "learned English at age six and spoke with a marked accent into his late teens." During World War II, he served in the United States Merchant Marine; he completed his first novel at the time, which was published more than 40 years after his death. His first published book was The Town and the City (1950), and he achieved widespread fame and notoriety with his second, On the Road, in 1957. It made him a beat icon, and he went on to publish 12 more novels and numerous poetry volumes.
Kerouac is recognized for his style of stream of consciousness spontaneous prose. Thematically, his work covers topics such as his Catholic spirituality, jazz, travel, promiscuity, life in New York City, Buddhism, drugs, and poverty. He became an underground celebrity and, with other Beats, a progenitor of the hippie movement, although he remained antagonistic toward some of its politically radical elements. He has a lasting legacy, greatly influencing many of the cultural icons of the 1960s, including Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Jerry Garcia and The Doors.
In 1969, at the age of 47, Kerouac died from an abdominal hemorrhage caused by a lifetime of heavy drinking. Since then, his literary prestige has grown, and several previously unseen works have been published.
Of French-Canadian ancestry, Kerouac was raised in a French-speaking home in Lowell, Massachusetts. He "learned English at age six and spoke with a marked accent into his late teens." During World War II, he served in the United States Merchant Marine; he completed his first novel at the time, which was published more than 40 years after his death. His first published book was The Town and the City (1950), and he achieved widespread fame and notoriety with his second, On the Road, in 1957. It made him a beat icon, and he went on to publish 12 more novels and numerous poetry volumes.
Kerouac is recognized for his style of stream of consciousness spontaneous prose. Thematically, his work covers topics such as his Catholic spirituality, jazz, travel, promiscuity, life in New York City, Buddhism, drugs, and poverty. He became an underground celebrity and, with other Beats, a progenitor of the hippie movement, although he remained antagonistic toward some of its politically radical elements. He has a lasting legacy, greatly influencing many of the cultural icons of the 1960s, including Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Jerry Garcia and The Doors.
In 1969, at the age of 47, Kerouac died from an abdominal hemorrhage caused by a lifetime of heavy drinking. Since then, his literary prestige has grown, and several previously unseen works have been published.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews
June 11, 2014
Bad Kerouac but a worse play. Usually there's a flow to Kerouac's language and I expected to see that here instead I found disjointed scenes, conversations going nowhere but somehow missing their expected destinations while getting bogged down in bad dialogue mixing horse racing and Buddhism. There's so much good Kerouac out there pass by this dud.
August 8, 2011
For anyone obsessed with the Beat Generation, like me, this is a gem. A play, completely based on the beats and written by a beat. Need I say more?
October 8, 2009
Um, On the Road is definitely better. This had no point, which was essentially the point I suppose. It was a bunch of buddies talking..and getting no where in that. It was a super quick read and took me too long to actually want to be reading it..if that makes sense. I didn't mind the third Act. I wanted to like it more than I did. I don't know if I would recommend it.
March 1, 2013
This play written by Kerouac (and I believe there are only two that he ever wrote, the other one being Doctor Sax and the Great World Snake which was magnificently narrated by Creeley and others on a highly recommended CD + play package) introduces the reader to some fairly interesting hep-talk beat generation talk which is very fast-moving, hyperbolic and digresses off into all sorts of tangents.
It soon becomes clear that the 'Milo' character is or is based on Neal Cassady while 'Buck' has to be Kerouac both because of his constant obsession with his drinking and also because of how he talks about his father's business which was destroyed by a flood (his dad's printing business was damaged in the Great Lowell Flood).
Much of the talk is about nothing important or nothing specific but that IS the whole point of the beat ethos - not taking yourself or life as a whole too seriously.
I found that Act II was more interesting than Act I because the dialogue of Act II, set at the horseraces, jumps back and forth from their usual day-to-day banter about what horse to bet on and why to the occasional deep, philosophical remark. It's a pity that you don't get many people who talk like this today.
While the Beat Generation play is nowhere near as polished as Kerouac's timeless classic On the Road, it does still showcase the brilliance of Cassady and his ability to fascinate and hold people spell-bound by his conman double-talk. But how many conmen do you know who can also talk about famous writers, thinkers and philosophers in the same breath?
My main 'gripe' I have with this book though was how late 'Irwin' (i.e. Ginsburg) comes into the picture. Not having such a key member of the Beat Movement (if not THE key member) in the story was a bad mistake to my mind because while Cassady might be an interesting talker who is able to con his way out of most situations, Ginsberg is an extremely intelligent and eloquent speaker minus the Cassady BS, who offers profound insight into a variety of subjects including McCarthyism, Buddhism and various states of consciousness just to name a few. Just watch any of the rare interviews or video footage with the beats on youtube or the web and you will soon see the beauty of Ginsberg's mind and his amazing eloquence (at least in interviews). In fact, I find Ginsberg's interviews even MORE interesting than most of his poetry, with the obvious exceptions of Howl, America and Kaddish.
If you are a fan of the beats though, I would definitely recommend this. It's not going to shake your world as much as On the Road or The Dharma Bums or even Howl might, but it's definitely worth the price of admission.
Finally, I also think that Corso may have been right in saying that the meaning of 'beat' originally meant 'tired' or 'worn out' and that is what Huncke originally meant. Incidentally, a common misconception is that Kerouac coined the term. Wrong. Huncke did but Jack picked up on it and used it in his novels and that is how he ended up with the laurel of 'King of the Beats' bestowed upon him by the scathing press & Madison Avenue. Later, Kerouac made the connection between 'beat' and 'beatific' but as Corso points out, and I think correctly, that was just an afterthought or post hoc realization that Jack made about some semantic similarities and one obviously influenced by his Catholic upbringing and background.
This is a quick read and worth reading once but the roman candles are not quite burn, burn, burning as much as they did in other works like On the Road.
It soon becomes clear that the 'Milo' character is or is based on Neal Cassady while 'Buck' has to be Kerouac both because of his constant obsession with his drinking and also because of how he talks about his father's business which was destroyed by a flood (his dad's printing business was damaged in the Great Lowell Flood).
Much of the talk is about nothing important or nothing specific but that IS the whole point of the beat ethos - not taking yourself or life as a whole too seriously.
I found that Act II was more interesting than Act I because the dialogue of Act II, set at the horseraces, jumps back and forth from their usual day-to-day banter about what horse to bet on and why to the occasional deep, philosophical remark. It's a pity that you don't get many people who talk like this today.
While the Beat Generation play is nowhere near as polished as Kerouac's timeless classic On the Road, it does still showcase the brilliance of Cassady and his ability to fascinate and hold people spell-bound by his conman double-talk. But how many conmen do you know who can also talk about famous writers, thinkers and philosophers in the same breath?
My main 'gripe' I have with this book though was how late 'Irwin' (i.e. Ginsburg) comes into the picture. Not having such a key member of the Beat Movement (if not THE key member) in the story was a bad mistake to my mind because while Cassady might be an interesting talker who is able to con his way out of most situations, Ginsberg is an extremely intelligent and eloquent speaker minus the Cassady BS, who offers profound insight into a variety of subjects including McCarthyism, Buddhism and various states of consciousness just to name a few. Just watch any of the rare interviews or video footage with the beats on youtube or the web and you will soon see the beauty of Ginsberg's mind and his amazing eloquence (at least in interviews). In fact, I find Ginsberg's interviews even MORE interesting than most of his poetry, with the obvious exceptions of Howl, America and Kaddish.
If you are a fan of the beats though, I would definitely recommend this. It's not going to shake your world as much as On the Road or The Dharma Bums or even Howl might, but it's definitely worth the price of admission.
Finally, I also think that Corso may have been right in saying that the meaning of 'beat' originally meant 'tired' or 'worn out' and that is what Huncke originally meant. Incidentally, a common misconception is that Kerouac coined the term. Wrong. Huncke did but Jack picked up on it and used it in his novels and that is how he ended up with the laurel of 'King of the Beats' bestowed upon him by the scathing press & Madison Avenue. Later, Kerouac made the connection between 'beat' and 'beatific' but as Corso points out, and I think correctly, that was just an afterthought or post hoc realization that Jack made about some semantic similarities and one obviously influenced by his Catholic upbringing and background.
This is a quick read and worth reading once but the roman candles are not quite burn, burn, burning as much as they did in other works like On the Road.
January 19, 2013
Kerouac's lost play was pretty good. The 2nd act was a bit lost on me, as it involved lots of horseracing terms. The final act, though, was extremely funny. I would love to see a performance!
February 28, 2020
I had a look at other reviews for this play by Kerouac and found a lot of negative opinions regarding it, which I can understand to a degree. This is certainly not my favourite of his works that I've read so far and is probably actually the one I've enjoyed least, if I'm being honest and yet it still had positives that made it still overall interesting. Some people have bemoaned the fact that it is very rambling and nonsensical and I do agree that in places it can get a little abstract and does seem to wander off into near incomprehensible monologues, but then some passages have that familiar Kerouac poetic brilliance. The horse racing bit goes on a little too long, when they are down at the track and there is a lot of manic ranting and raving, which is entertaining at first and then gets a bit too drawn out perhaps. The camaraderie between the men was enjoyable throughout the play and this was one of the strong points about it and there was plenty of Kerouac's free, unencumbered writing style, although maybe he gets a bit too free at times and over indulges; thoughts spilling onto the page at break neck speed at several points in the book...
This is certainly not a great starting out point for an uninitiated Kerouac reader, On The Road being the obvious starting out point really...I think long time devotees of Jack will find some pleasing passages within this text, as I did, but will still struggle to really love this rambling, unusual play. On the whole, a mixed bag perhaps and quite unconventional to say its supposed to be a play, but certainly not a bad book in my view which has its moments.
September 14, 2013
My first Kerouac and I'm really looking forward to reading On the Road now. I found Beat Generation to be an interesting play but none one HAS to have read. It took me the whole first act (out of three) to get used to the language and to get into the flow but then it was entertaining and I really enjoyed the second act. Most people prefer the third one, but I did not find it to be any funnier than the other two. Wondering why I'm not saying anything about the plot? It's basically non-existent - but there is a certain beauty in that.
The OneWorld Classics edition includes an Introduction by A.M. Homes, which I really appreciated. Homes makes you eager to read the play and more works by Kerouac and other writers from the beat generation, and he also accomplishes to give you a good idea of the background of the play and what to expect on the following pages. This introduction was really helpful.
This edition also includes a short biography and introduction to other works by Jack Kerouac. Both were really interesting to read and gave a good overview of Kerouac's life and what's going on in his works.
I would recommend this to people interested in experimental plays and devoted Kerouac/beat generation fans.
The OneWorld Classics edition includes an Introduction by A.M. Homes, which I really appreciated. Homes makes you eager to read the play and more works by Kerouac and other writers from the beat generation, and he also accomplishes to give you a good idea of the background of the play and what to expect on the following pages. This introduction was really helpful.
This edition also includes a short biography and introduction to other works by Jack Kerouac. Both were really interesting to read and gave a good overview of Kerouac's life and what's going on in his works.
I would recommend this to people interested in experimental plays and devoted Kerouac/beat generation fans.
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July 30, 2011My first experience with Kerouac comes in play form, and I'm honestly not really sure what to think. It is sort of stream of consciousness, but perhaps with a little more structure? It was pretty difficult to get into at first, but by midway through act two I was accustomed enough to the style to understand the (plot?).
As the back cover states, Kerouac focuses on a group of individuals who have a very short distance to fall in order to reach rock bottom. The hope on display here is astounding, considering the reality of the situations in which the characters find themselves. It is a little sad I suppose, but I wasn't able to become too attached to the characters or story lines. I'd like to read "On the Road" and see if maybe after that "Beat Generation" makes more sense.
As the back cover states, Kerouac focuses on a group of individuals who have a very short distance to fall in order to reach rock bottom. The hope on display here is astounding, considering the reality of the situations in which the characters find themselves. It is a little sad I suppose, but I wasn't able to become too attached to the characters or story lines. I'd like to read "On the Road" and see if maybe after that "Beat Generation" makes more sense.
June 23, 2012
This play did nothing for me. I couldn't get into the rhythm of the language and the lack of dramatic structure made this one a true dud. It had some okay speeches from a character here and there, but that, in no way, can carry a play.
September 26, 2010
Is holy holy???
January 2, 2013
Didn't understand a word!
December 22, 2018
Sinceramente, 124 páginas de nada com nada.
December 30, 2019
Tinha tudo para dar errado. É uma peça do Kerouac no qual ele pesa a mão em assuntos que o Bukowski exploraria à exaustão anos depois: lumpenproletariado machista, bebedeira (muita), maconha (pouca), música erudita e apostas em corridas de cavalo. O diferencial é o interesse dos personagens por religião, com as características de Kerouac (budismo e cristianismo), e o apreço por jazz. Inspirado no estilo musical, é aí que a prosa dele brilha: os diálogos entrecortados parecem que não vão a lugar nenhum, soam caóticos a princípio, mas tudo se encaixa e flui maravilhosamente bem, como numa boa improvisação. Há alguma discussão metafísica/teológica/literária, além de questões mundanas, tudo bem costurado. Os detratores consideram um monte de papo furado, viagens sem sentido, mas aí é que está: como seria o dia a dia dos primeiros beats, todos chapados e com veleidades literárias e intelectuais, enquanto lidam com empregos medíocres? Suponho que não seria muito diferente dos encontros narrados nos três atos. É uma obra de um naturalismo espantoso, embora não pareça a princípio.
December 5, 2012
Kerouac is one of my favourite authors of all time. But I must admit I don’t care for everything he does. This was a play he wrote that was going to become a screenplay and honestly it’s a bit Meh. Unlike in his books it’s not really obvious who the characters are supposed to be (apart from Neal). Jack only became obvious in the third act when he started drinking! In many ways I wonder if it was written as a reaction against the ideas of what the Beat Generation were. There was no drug use, no jazz, no travelling, no parties. Rather the three scenes comprised of guy’s hanging out eating breakfast after work, gambling at the race track and hanging out with a religious guy in a suburban household. The scenes are without purpose but they are also without the charm of the normal conversations within a Kerouac book. I think just having dialogue and missing the prose takes away some of the affection towards the characters, who honestly come off sounding rather stupid and lame. The introduction mentions how women were un-emancipated in Kerouac’s world, which considering Carolyn being a working mother seems a bit unfair. My favourite part was in the first chapter how the woman appeared in a very domestic role, serving breakfast and coffee to the men as they come home from work. However, when her husband does arrive he proudly announces that he should be able to get her hooked up with some H that day. Definitely not your typical American 50s housewife! I’m glad I found this book as I do want to read everything by Kerouac but I definitely wouldn’t say this was his best.
February 20, 2011
Kerouac's one and only play, the manuscript was only recently discovered (2007) in a NY warehouse. The 3rd Act is largely familiar as the basis for the 1959 seminal 'Beat' short film "Pull My Daisy" which had voiceover narration by Keoruac to the silent actions of Allan Ginsberg, Peter Orlovsky and Gregory Corso. It's been criticized as one of Jack's weaker works, but for my money what it lacks in dramatic narrative structure - Kerouac attempting to bring his free-flowing style from page to stage - it makes up for with it's lively and humorous portrayal of Beat buddies working the railroads, drinking, betting on the horses, playing around with absurdest Buddhist-text-inspired concepts and generally making the hard work of life frivolous and fun for their own sakes. The first two acts pretty much set up these hard-drinking, gambling dharma bum train workers and their odd free-verse aspiring-Bhodisattva mind-sets. The 3rd Act is the story of a local Catholic Bishop strangely versed in Buddhism who comes visit them at their home near the Bowery. Actually the short film "Pull My Daisy" did the 3rd act better than the play, though it's still worth reading for acts 1 and 2. You can watch the entire 26 minute film at http://video.google.com/videoplay?doc...#
February 23, 2019
i guess most of act three was enjoyable
a lot of talk on religion, sex, and horse racing, if that's your cup of tea. definitely pure 'chew the fat'.
a lot of talk on religion, sex, and horse racing, if that's your cup of tea. definitely pure 'chew the fat'.
December 14, 2018
On est loin du chef-d'oeuvre qu'était Sur la route... C'est une pièce de théâtre qui part dans tous les sens. J'en retiens pas grand-chose, hélas... C'est l'histoire d'une gang de gars qui part parier à des courses de chevaux, et qui revient pour une discussion informelle avec un évêque dans le salon d'un des protagonistes... Je trouve que tout ce beau monde parle pour rien dire.
April 15, 2008
Jack Kerouac could do a lot of things well, they say, but apparently playwriting was not one of them. This is a formless, motionless, and ultimately pointless play about....winos talking about betting on the horses. My fearless prediction is that they'll never make a movie out of it.
August 6, 2007
glad he stuck to novels.
April 17, 2012
If ya gotta ask who you won't want to read but if ya said Oh yeah ,read this or die !
March 10, 2016
Jack Kerouac'ın bence pek de başarılı olmayan bir oyunu.
June 27, 2013
Oh man. 3 stars for making me laugh out loud. I wouldn't necessarily say it's a good read, but the absurdity of it all kept me entertained. It's like Seinfeld meets the Beats.
February 5, 2014
Kerouac's unique style works good in prose, but I'm not sure about drama though...
November 23, 2017
Short, rather forgettable, Kerouac's sole adult foray into drama is no major discovery, never quite reaching past mildly entertaining.
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March 23, 2020Não consigo avaliar não, é muito doido pra eu conseguir dar estrelinhas. Mas gostei da leitura.
August 6, 2023
BUCK: Well Bishop, what are we all doing here, and what strange days we live . . . . isnt that so
IRWIN: Yeah, I think we should all be ourselves sometime . . . soon as we can
Found this gem in a Half-Price Books in Minnesota. The only play Jack Kerouac ever wrote, never published or performed until it was unearthed in the early 2000s for this edition. It's not his greatest work, but it has a rhythm to it, that bop prosody he stole from Black musicians and jazz. So many quotes struck me when I least expected it, even though the play itself is hard to get through for the following reasons, which Kerouac thought were its strengths: "What I wanta do is re-do the theater and the cinema in America, give it a spontaneous dash, remove pre-conceptions of 'situation' and let people rave on as they do in real life. That's what the play is: no plot in particular, no 'meaning' in particular, just the way people are. Everything I write I do in the spirit where I imagine myself an Angel returned to earth seeing it with sad eyes as it is." Okay Kerouac, I have to disagree here on some level (there can be a plot and there doesn't need to be any particular meaning, other than people being as they are, but themes appear NATURALLY in writing in my opinion...).
But also it’d be cool to direct a diverse and inclusive version of this play just to see how it holds up onstage (not well though, I think)
IRWIN: Yeah, I think we should all be ourselves sometime . . . soon as we can
Found this gem in a Half-Price Books in Minnesota. The only play Jack Kerouac ever wrote, never published or performed until it was unearthed in the early 2000s for this edition. It's not his greatest work, but it has a rhythm to it, that bop prosody he stole from Black musicians and jazz. So many quotes struck me when I least expected it, even though the play itself is hard to get through for the following reasons, which Kerouac thought were its strengths: "What I wanta do is re-do the theater and the cinema in America, give it a spontaneous dash, remove pre-conceptions of 'situation' and let people rave on as they do in real life. That's what the play is: no plot in particular, no 'meaning' in particular, just the way people are. Everything I write I do in the spirit where I imagine myself an Angel returned to earth seeing it with sad eyes as it is." Okay Kerouac, I have to disagree here on some level (there can be a plot and there doesn't need to be any particular meaning, other than people being as they are, but themes appear NATURALLY in writing in my opinion...).
But also it’d be cool to direct a diverse and inclusive version of this play just to see how it holds up onstage (not well though, I think)
April 23, 2020
This'll be a short review. The bottom line is that the play is not structured. Sure, it has three acts, but there's no plot, no conflict, no character development. It's just a bunch of guys talking, which is probably how Kerouac intended. It's unconventional. I just wish I was able to follow what the characters were talking about because the topics of conversation were interesting, ranging from Buddhism to karma to horse racing to life. At the end of the day, I interpreted the play to be about the friendship these days have in spite of the world and life they lead. That they can have a calm and civil discussion about these things is nice. I enjoyed the last couple pages of the play because I felt that I connected with the characters. It's just too bad I couldn't understand them from the beginning.
February 26, 2021
Act One is a disjointed conversation over breakfast. Act Two is a disjointed conversation at a racetrack. And Act Three is a little bit less disjointed conversation about religion and Cowboys! All-in-all, it just seems like three acts of stream-of-consciousness ramblings that make very little sense. A strange play.
“... that gone turtle that swims out into infinite seas throughout eternity and comes up once in a while and sticks his head up - ...what are the chances of that turtle coming up just when the noose is over his head? trillion to one? What long odds!”
“... that gone turtle that swims out into infinite seas throughout eternity and comes up once in a while and sticks his head up - ...what are the chances of that turtle coming up just when the noose is over his head? trillion to one? What long odds!”
April 14, 2023
Not Jack's best but sure look. Have definitely never come across another play like this and likely never will. A great portrait of what the beatniks were at, but not a great play. The final act featuring The Bishop almost reaches a distillation of Kerouac's Catholic background and Buddhist influences but ultimately falls flat.
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December 23, 2024DNFed
One of my mist toxic traits is that I actually really like On the Road but I’m so sorry I couldn’t do this. I did act one and the writing style is so dense its difficult to make out what the fuck anyone’s talking about
a fantastic director and cast could make this play sing however my brain is neither that director nor that cast
One of my mist toxic traits is that I actually really like On the Road but I’m so sorry I couldn’t do this. I did act one and the writing style is so dense its difficult to make out what the fuck anyone’s talking about
a fantastic director and cast could make this play sing however my brain is neither that director nor that cast
Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews