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Book of Sketches
In 1951, it was suggested to Jack Kerouac by his friend Ed White that he "sketch in the streets like a painter but with words." In August of the following year, Kerouac began writing down prose poem "sketches" in small notebooks that he kept in the breast pockets of his shirts. For two years he recorded travels, observations, and meditations on art and life as he moved across America and down to Mexico and back. In 1957, Kerouac sat down with the fifteen handwritten sketch notebooks he had accumulated and typed them into a manuscript called Book of Sketches; he included a handful of new sketches he had written that year. Published now for the first time, and with an introduction by George Condo, Book of Sketches offers an intimate glimpse of Kerouac at a key period of his literary career.
432 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
60 people are currently reading
738 people want to read
About the author
Jack Kerouac
376 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 59 reviews
October 13, 2020
Montreal night of
suburban streetdiggings
with oil cups, flares
illuminating sandpiles,
as Angel bends
over. Gerald bends over,
leering sadly
in this night—
A great
unequivocal dog
Is all a wolf is
I am Mallarme's
grandchild
The locomotive comes swimming
thru the newsy city. In
a deep cut, houses on both
banks, full of living lights,
talk of families in eventful
kitchens. This is where I come
riding my Maine white horse.
December 17, 2015
Words alone can’t describe how beautiful this book is to hold in your hands – it’s a gorgeous, pocket-sized collection of some of Kerouac’s poetry, which is as delightful to read as it is to look at it. Perhaps the coolest aspect of it is the serrated pages – every twenty pages or so, the page size changes slightly, creating a visual effect a bit like a harpsichord that feels incredible when you ruffle the pages.
But enough about the cover and bindings – what you really want to know about is the contents, and that’s where this is really special. Kerouac’s friend Ed White first suggested that he “sketch in the streets like a painter but with words” in 1951 – I reckon you see where this is going.
This book, then, is a record of the two years in which he recorded his “travels, observations and meditations on art and life”, whilst doing the usual travelling, of course. He has his usual way with words, and I’d argue that his skill here is greater than it was at most other points in his career – it’s certainly more civilized and refined, although it still holds the edge that the rest of his body of work contains.
But enough about the cover and bindings – what you really want to know about is the contents, and that’s where this is really special. Kerouac’s friend Ed White first suggested that he “sketch in the streets like a painter but with words” in 1951 – I reckon you see where this is going.
This book, then, is a record of the two years in which he recorded his “travels, observations and meditations on art and life”, whilst doing the usual travelling, of course. He has his usual way with words, and I’d argue that his skill here is greater than it was at most other points in his career – it’s certainly more civilized and refined, although it still holds the edge that the rest of his body of work contains.
April 26, 2014
A few really good ones, but mostly average. Kerouac wrote these while working on the railroad before On the Road was published. He was a pretty negative guy while writing these sketches, even dissing Ginsberg, Burroughs and Cassady.
December 24, 2012
Absolutely spellbinding. This is not only what poetry should truly be but how the mind actually works. Kerouac sounds less like an artsy writer and more like a down=to-earth journalist. Not only is the sheer scope of this amazing but the way he switches from concrete descriptions of everyday life to more abstract philosophizing on his own role and the nature of reality is flawless. Spontaneous, rough, yet engaging and beautiful in its own way.
May 29, 2018
I believe it was in David McCullough's brilliant "John Adams" that a father (John Adams?) offers advice to a traveling relative (John Quincy, announcing a trip to Russia?), something like: "Always carry a book of poetry in your pocket and you'll never be alone." That's a great sentiment, and I can imagine traveling with Kerouac's "Book of Sketches" as his observations about everything, literally, are enlightening. A few quotes:
About a place: "Country life with morals, as in North Carolina, is the most destructive life on earth-City life with morals offers a few diversions, nothing more." (And what is not said here is most important: whose morals is he talking about? It feels like a few lines of poetry/prose have been left out.)
About colors: "White creamy huge stucco warehouse of Kew Gardens...iron stairs that lead to a green door in the whiteness of the stucco wall just by the orange and red writing, huge half seen half lit."
About travel with friends: "Neal & I are in Mex City-buying tea* off queers-we're in a hotel room-they are very weird young dirty...we're in MC only a week just for weed & a few Organo girls-Neal's blasting &rolling & bringing my attention to the weirdness of the boys 'Dig them-dig their lives man-The way they live-how they hustle on that crazy Organo street'-wondering how much they oughta charge us..."
About life: "Awright so we're all gonna die but now is the time to sing and see, to be humble, sacrificed, late, crazy, talkative, foolish, mailteinnottond, crawdedommeeng...Time, rather, to be proud, indispensable, early, sane, silent, serious, not mailteinnottond at all."
This prose/poetry work does show influences of James Joyce (Kerouac is one of the few writers I've encountered who can to justicetojoyce). This-a masterpiece of prose/poetry which takes us deep into Kerouac's head, his truths, his person, his sexuality-is one I must buy and keep and revisit often and carry around-maybe in my front pocket so people will think I'm happy to see them.
*tea=in the 1940s to 1960s, the word 'tea' was one of many slang words for marijuana. And, oh how I laughed when that Republican group branched off into their "Tea Party": had it been true to its name, I'd have joined (these ageachesandpains are looking for a cure these days).
CHEERS to Kerouac and the Beats-they got it right in the 50s and 60s. What went wrong after the Summer of Love in 1968? What happened to America? (My opinion, for what it's worth, is that those returning from Vietnam were horribly mistreated. They were never considered heroes in any way, shape, or form. True, the war was pointless, but the veterans deserved so much more and were literally tossed onto the streets. Then, Nixon/Watergate which is being replayed today as Trump/Electiongate.) The spirit of Kerouac, the drive to keep going, to discover, to try all things, and the fascination of talking to anyone on trains and buses and on city streets with no intentions other than to say "hey man, groovy". The grove is gone and that makes me sad. Kerouac died in Florida at age 47 (so young!) in 1969, right after the Summer of Love. It was over for him and the wildly successful America of the 1950s closed. No more groovin' for Kerouac with his beat friends in this plane of existence. A very sad loss for the literary world. But I have to consider this as a 'flawed masterpiece' and give it a 4-star rating: Kerouac states on page 1 that these sketches are "Printed exactly as they were written on the little pages in the notebooks I carried in my breast pocket 1952 Summer to 1954 December..." But right below that, we read, "(Not Necessarily Chronological)." George Condo, in his introduction, tells us this chronological note is by Kerouac and that's fine....so far. But why are they not in chronological order, as that's the way the notebooks would have been written, right? Was Kerouac unable to discern the order or read the dates? Did a publisher re-organize the notes and ask Kerouac to add the note? Were some sketches left out for whatever reason? Yea, I know, I've grown mistrustful of publishers (most recently Micheal Crichton's 'Dragon's Teeth' indicates no where in the book that Crichton wrote it at all, as he has passed on and is unavailable to tell us the truth) so I can't be sure this work here is pure Kerouac, or a product/collaboration between the author and publisher. Also, some of the sketches are written in French (why?) and only one of them is translated into English (again, why?). I have a gut feeling this isn't all Kerouac, but still it's very good. I'm pretty sure Crichton had little or nothing to do with 'Dragon's Teeth', and that one is probably the weakest work with Crichton's name on it. Publisher's with their editors and their finance people and their lawyers, etc., have been involved in the publishing world forever (well, at least during the past 6,000 years during which the written word came into its own) so this issue is nothing new. Still, I highly recommend this to poetry fans, to prose/poetry fans, to anyone who loves James Joyce, to fans of the Beats, and to anyone who wants to get to know Kerouac better.
About a place: "Country life with morals, as in North Carolina, is the most destructive life on earth-City life with morals offers a few diversions, nothing more." (And what is not said here is most important: whose morals is he talking about? It feels like a few lines of poetry/prose have been left out.)
About colors: "White creamy huge stucco warehouse of Kew Gardens...iron stairs that lead to a green door in the whiteness of the stucco wall just by the orange and red writing, huge half seen half lit."
About travel with friends: "Neal & I are in Mex City-buying tea* off queers-we're in a hotel room-they are very weird young dirty...we're in MC only a week just for weed & a few Organo girls-Neal's blasting &rolling & bringing my attention to the weirdness of the boys 'Dig them-dig their lives man-The way they live-how they hustle on that crazy Organo street'-wondering how much they oughta charge us..."
About life: "Awright so we're all gonna die but now is the time to sing and see, to be humble, sacrificed, late, crazy, talkative, foolish, mailteinnottond, crawdedommeeng...Time, rather, to be proud, indispensable, early, sane, silent, serious, not mailteinnottond at all."
This prose/poetry work does show influences of James Joyce (Kerouac is one of the few writers I've encountered who can to justicetojoyce). This-a masterpiece of prose/poetry which takes us deep into Kerouac's head, his truths, his person, his sexuality-is one I must buy and keep and revisit often and carry around-maybe in my front pocket so people will think I'm happy to see them.
*tea=in the 1940s to 1960s, the word 'tea' was one of many slang words for marijuana. And, oh how I laughed when that Republican group branched off into their "Tea Party": had it been true to its name, I'd have joined (these ageachesandpains are looking for a cure these days).
CHEERS to Kerouac and the Beats-they got it right in the 50s and 60s. What went wrong after the Summer of Love in 1968? What happened to America? (My opinion, for what it's worth, is that those returning from Vietnam were horribly mistreated. They were never considered heroes in any way, shape, or form. True, the war was pointless, but the veterans deserved so much more and were literally tossed onto the streets. Then, Nixon/Watergate which is being replayed today as Trump/Electiongate.) The spirit of Kerouac, the drive to keep going, to discover, to try all things, and the fascination of talking to anyone on trains and buses and on city streets with no intentions other than to say "hey man, groovy". The grove is gone and that makes me sad. Kerouac died in Florida at age 47 (so young!) in 1969, right after the Summer of Love. It was over for him and the wildly successful America of the 1950s closed. No more groovin' for Kerouac with his beat friends in this plane of existence. A very sad loss for the literary world. But I have to consider this as a 'flawed masterpiece' and give it a 4-star rating: Kerouac states on page 1 that these sketches are "Printed exactly as they were written on the little pages in the notebooks I carried in my breast pocket 1952 Summer to 1954 December..." But right below that, we read, "(Not Necessarily Chronological)." George Condo, in his introduction, tells us this chronological note is by Kerouac and that's fine....so far. But why are they not in chronological order, as that's the way the notebooks would have been written, right? Was Kerouac unable to discern the order or read the dates? Did a publisher re-organize the notes and ask Kerouac to add the note? Were some sketches left out for whatever reason? Yea, I know, I've grown mistrustful of publishers (most recently Micheal Crichton's 'Dragon's Teeth' indicates no where in the book that Crichton wrote it at all, as he has passed on and is unavailable to tell us the truth) so I can't be sure this work here is pure Kerouac, or a product/collaboration between the author and publisher. Also, some of the sketches are written in French (why?) and only one of them is translated into English (again, why?). I have a gut feeling this isn't all Kerouac, but still it's very good. I'm pretty sure Crichton had little or nothing to do with 'Dragon's Teeth', and that one is probably the weakest work with Crichton's name on it. Publisher's with their editors and their finance people and their lawyers, etc., have been involved in the publishing world forever (well, at least during the past 6,000 years during which the written word came into its own) so this issue is nothing new. Still, I highly recommend this to poetry fans, to prose/poetry fans, to anyone who loves James Joyce, to fans of the Beats, and to anyone who wants to get to know Kerouac better.
April 28, 2018
Although I have read Kerouac before, this book gave me a much better appreciation of his skill as a writer and an observer. Sketches includes reprints from his pocket notebooks written from 1952-54. In these notebooks, his friend Ed White reports that "he sketched in the streets like a painter with words". The individual pieces are reprinted exactly, with no editing or revisions so the reader really sees Jack's world exactly as he did on each particular day. Thanks to the library staff for placing this on the poetry display. This book is truly unforgettable. Please enter in the April poetry challenge.
December 3, 2017
An enjoyable collection of prose poetry from a formative time in Kerouc's life, after The Town and the City but before On the Road was published. Mostly free of the Buddhism that marked his later poetry, but still happy and enlightened.
March 25, 2024
Kerouac let’s you ride his stream of consciousness waves; the result is rather underwhelming; some original observations and phrasings but you can skip this volume without missing out.
June 5, 2012
Fantastic. This left me absolutely speechless.
There are just too many jaw-dropping moments for me to mention.
In fact, even though this book is not a story but a collection of notebook scribblings poured straight onto the page by one of the great literary minds of the 20th century, there is something very magical about this book. Is it the opening description? Hard to say.
Incredibly visual description. As George Condo says in the introduction, this really shows you just how much of a genius Kerouac was.
There are just too many jaw-dropping moments for me to mention.
In fact, even though this book is not a story but a collection of notebook scribblings poured straight onto the page by one of the great literary minds of the 20th century, there is something very magical about this book. Is it the opening description? Hard to say.
Incredibly visual description. As George Condo says in the introduction, this really shows you just how much of a genius Kerouac was.
May 24, 2018
So good to be in Jack's world again. In this one he is about 30, as good a writer as he will ever be (and that's GOOD) , working as a railroad brakeman around the country, and writing down what he sees and thinks about. No story to get in the way. He claims it's not poetry but it is. A vivid picture of the old America of junkyards and hoboes.
May 17, 2024
book of sketches, beautiful book full of avid and real life, real thought and real bane of consciousness, death and life, goodness and sickness, everything that is a part of this dear life and earth that we call ours and continually call it to be holy, saints, looking for saints and lilies in meadows unbeknownst to us or anybody, da gittin there real soon, love is the answer
January 15, 2024
Menos mal que lo pillé de la biblioteca, me hubiera arrepentido mucho de invertir un sólo céntimo en este libro... lo mejor de él es cuando se acaba. Un pan sin sal.
Read
April 14, 2022"I, poor French Canadian Ti Jean become
a big sophisticated hipster esthete in
the homosexual arts, I, mutterer to
myself in childhood French, I, Indian0
head, I, Mogloo, I the wild one,
the "child boy," I, Claudius Brutus
McGonigle Mckarroquack, hopper
of freights, Skid Row habituee,
railroad Budhhist, New England Modernist,
20th Century Storywriter, Crum, Krap,
dope, divorcee, hype, type; sitter in win-
dows of life; idiot far from home; no
wood in my stove, no potatoes in my
field, no field; hepcat, howler, wailer,
waiter in the line of time; lazy
washed-out, workless; yearner after
Europe, poet manquée; pas tough!
stool gatherer, food destroyer, war
evader, nightmare dreamer, angel
be-er, wisdom seer, fool, bird, cocacola
bottle—I, am in need of advice
from God and will not get it, not
likely, nor soon, nor ever—sad saha
world, we were born for nothing from
nothing—Respects to our sensitive
Keeners up & down the crime."
from "San Francisco SKETCH (1954 now)"
April 19, 2014
A never-before-published book of poems by Jack Kerouac in a deluxe package In 1952 and 1953 as he wandered around America, Jack Kerouac jotted down spontaneous prose poems, or sketches as he called them, on small notebooks that he kept in his shirt pockets. The poems recount his travels New York, North Carolina, Lowell (Massachusetts, Kerouac s birthplace), San Francisco, Denver, Kansas, Mexico observations, and meditations on art and life. The poems are often strung together so that over the course of several of them, a little story or travelogue appears, complete in itself. Published for the first time, Book of Sketches offers a luminous, intimate, and transcendental glimpse of one of the most original voices of the twentieth century at a key time in his literary and spiritual development.
November 6, 2012
A book of sketches is exactly what this is; sketches with words and feelings instead of lines and shades. Only Kerouac could accomplish this so gracefully. And you see these scenes in your head, FEEL them, much more acutely than if you were looking at an actual sketch. Nobody invokes such warmth, feeling, and wondering comfort like Jack Kerouac does. You read him to a beat that is his entirely. The things he wrote about are timeless and that is why he is remembered and his writings have endured. It doesn't matter if his roots are French-Canadian, Kerouac is, in my opinion, THE great American novelist.
December 20, 2014
Lets be honest, these personal notes by Kerouac were meant to be a book. I to keep a small notebook in my pocket where i jot down random musings, but I like Kerouac have no interest in publishing this notebook. The simple yet poignant writings are proof of Kerouac's monstrous memory and his attention to detail, yet in no way formed like a traditional book. As such, it is beautiful poetry, and artfully crafted everyday life. Kerouac has the entertaining ability to make even mowing the lawn seem poetic, and causes the reader to keep their eyes more open to what is around them after reading this book.
January 9, 2015
Let's face it, this book wasn't meant to be published. It is exactly what it says, sketches Kerouac made. It takes a little while to get into the book and I think a certain amount of time for Kerouac to find his voice but when everything connects you can really sense his feel and genius for writing, whether through a rhythm, a rhyme or simply some observations. There are plenty of times where Kerouac does what he does, describes everything in front of him in minute detail. Would he have expanded on these had life gone another way? Who knows. As it is they're another piece of the picture and works best read as expirements, notes, observations and yes poems meant only for him.
November 29, 2017
Me ha parecido magnífico como escritor poder leer este libro de mi admirado Jack Kerouac por que me ha permitido acceder a su pensamiento, a la forma en que él componía, construía, ese universo que formo parte de la Generación Beat, un testimonio en primera persona del Estados Unidos que no sale en los libros de Historia. Altamente recomendable para acercarse al autor y al momento histórico
December 14, 2011
Kerouac captures his stream of consciousness/Jazz/beatnik style in poetry form, a lot if it is just observations but they capture the moment without over thinking things. Lots of pretty insightful stuff too and great one liners at times.
September 7, 2014
I really don't like this book. I believe the description is misleading. It's not beautiful or poetic. All it is are short pieces listing what is in front of him using plain words.
April 2, 2022
A cash grab. Kerouac eventually became a sort of folk hero to some and although some of his unpublished work was well worth the time, some wasn't. This is literally a book of incomplete poems.
January 23, 2019
El Libro de esbozos (o Book of sketches) es imperfecto, veloz, desgarbado, indisciplinado. Estamos ante un texto único porque es el Kerouac más honesto y fresco. Luego de que todos sabemos que On the road fue un texto más pulido que improvisado de algún modo buscaba un Kerouac más cercano a esa improvisación jazzística de su prosa. Junto con la publicación del texto original de On the road creo que Book of sketches es lo más cercano a ese Kerouac del mito.
El libro es un inmenos poema dividido en distintos estadios, fragmentos, notas tomadas en el estribo de trenes o autos, detrás de ventanas de cuartos ajenos mientras observa su mundo: México, Europa, campos, ciudades de noche, en el verano o al final del otoño.
El libro no agota al lector y da cuenta de las mil crisis, dudas, esperanzas y amores que tuvo Kerouac previos a la publicación de On the road. Fue idea de un amigo del autor que le recomendó llevar una libreta donde tomar apuntes en sus viajes y así no perder la iniciativa de la escritura. Los años que abarca son los previos al salto a la fama de Kerouac así que estamos ante un norteamericano anónimo que goza de su anonimato al mismo tiempo que lo sufre porque quería en algún momento que publicaran su obra. Mientras escribe y da cuenta de novelas que luego saldrían y serían clásicos indiscutidos, como La vanidad de los Duluoz, Los subterráneos o el mismo En el camino. Estamos ante un Thoreau del siglo XX que goza de la naturaleza y al mismo tiempo de un heredero desgarbado de T.S. Eliot cuando describe la miseria que esconde el sueño americano. El autor ama y odia con fulgor a su país y eso es éxtasis y dolor.
La belleza se expande y la traducción (por momentos demasiado ibérica para un lector latinoamericano) no impide disfrutar de esos esbozos e inclusive son por momentos un logro en si mismo. Fue acertado de todos modos que la editorial incluyera el texto original en inglés porque hay momentos en los que Kerouac juega con onomatopeyas que solo admiten leerse en inglés.
De seguro este entra en uno de mis libros favoritos y de consulta constante de ahora en más.
El libro es un inmenos poema dividido en distintos estadios, fragmentos, notas tomadas en el estribo de trenes o autos, detrás de ventanas de cuartos ajenos mientras observa su mundo: México, Europa, campos, ciudades de noche, en el verano o al final del otoño.
El libro no agota al lector y da cuenta de las mil crisis, dudas, esperanzas y amores que tuvo Kerouac previos a la publicación de On the road. Fue idea de un amigo del autor que le recomendó llevar una libreta donde tomar apuntes en sus viajes y así no perder la iniciativa de la escritura. Los años que abarca son los previos al salto a la fama de Kerouac así que estamos ante un norteamericano anónimo que goza de su anonimato al mismo tiempo que lo sufre porque quería en algún momento que publicaran su obra. Mientras escribe y da cuenta de novelas que luego saldrían y serían clásicos indiscutidos, como La vanidad de los Duluoz, Los subterráneos o el mismo En el camino. Estamos ante un Thoreau del siglo XX que goza de la naturaleza y al mismo tiempo de un heredero desgarbado de T.S. Eliot cuando describe la miseria que esconde el sueño americano. El autor ama y odia con fulgor a su país y eso es éxtasis y dolor.
La belleza se expande y la traducción (por momentos demasiado ibérica para un lector latinoamericano) no impide disfrutar de esos esbozos e inclusive son por momentos un logro en si mismo. Fue acertado de todos modos que la editorial incluyera el texto original en inglés porque hay momentos en los que Kerouac juega con onomatopeyas que solo admiten leerse en inglés.
De seguro este entra en uno de mis libros favoritos y de consulta constante de ahora en más.
January 10, 2021
For fans of Kerouac, this is one more option to soak up his imagery and float along on the unique cadence of his language. The book is as the title describes a collection of sketches of places, people and ideas from various points in Kerouac’s travels and life. He developed this technique as a strategy to hone his spontaneous writing. But make no mistake, he refined and improved his off the cuff writing to great effect in the finished pieces.
If you are new to the author, this is as good a place as any to make a start. If tripped up by the form or language, I suggest reading aloud slowly and naturally, as though reciting the lyrics of a song or the words of an excited conversation between great friends.
If you are new to the author, this is as good a place as any to make a start. If tripped up by the form or language, I suggest reading aloud slowly and naturally, as though reciting the lyrics of a song or the words of an excited conversation between great friends.
January 30, 2021
Book of Sketches is an interesting read, you get a hodge podge of ideas and themes.
Poem style/poems, some read like a stream of consciousness and some are more polished.
Lots of beautiful scenes painted with words of slices of life in America 1950's. Levi's and sunsets.
Some bits feel like Jack was up late, couldn't sleep and had to get his philosophy on life of the day/ his notes to self/ how he should live out of his head.
I did learn that Kerouac is a French-Canadian, and he writes some sketches in a phonetic French that's really funny to read. I also got the impression that he was kind of lonely/lost and bit misogynistic/angry at the world.
Poem style/poems, some read like a stream of consciousness and some are more polished.
Lots of beautiful scenes painted with words of slices of life in America 1950's. Levi's and sunsets.
Some bits feel like Jack was up late, couldn't sleep and had to get his philosophy on life of the day/ his notes to self/ how he should live out of his head.
I did learn that Kerouac is a French-Canadian, and he writes some sketches in a phonetic French that's really funny to read. I also got the impression that he was kind of lonely/lost and bit misogynistic/angry at the world.
January 10, 2026
I thought I'd read everything by and about Kerouac, until my wife bought me this for Christmas. He is one of my all time favourites, but I'm really struggling with this. As others have said the packaging is a little "quirky" and certainly has "the look" of an interesting book, but I think the publishers have clutched at straws in putting this collection together. "Sketch the streets like a painter, but with words" is an admirable/trendy concept, but doesn't necessarily make for a good read. I'll persevere, but I think this is one for teenagers to carry in their back pockets in the fashion of A. Huxley's Brave New World ( which IS a great book) back in day. ie more style over substance.
October 30, 2019
This was overall, just an okay read for me. Nothing about it was super impactful for me. It was cool that it was all just the way he had written it while traveling but I think I almost would have preferred some form of editing. Most likely because this was my first interaction with his work. I picked it up on a whim at Half Priced Books for cheap so I'm not too frustrated at my disappointment.
February 15, 2017
All over the place, but that's sort of the point, right? This is one for the Kerouac fans who can hear his voice when they read him.
April 30, 2020
live this book
June 9, 2022
Very interesting book of poems made me engrossed to read for hours.
December 19, 2024
This one took me a while; absorbing Kerouac at his manic best is no easy task. His use of language and pace are unmatched and unimmitatable. Brilliant.
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