Beatniks

by Toby Litt

336pages. in8. Broché.

Genres: Fiction, Novels

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Toby Litt was born in Bedfordshire, England. He studied Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia where he was taught by Malcolm Bradbury, winning the 1995 Curtis Brown Fellowship.

He lived in Prague from 1990 to 1993 and published his first book, a collection of short stories entitled Adventures in Capitalism, in 1996.

In 2003 Toby Litt was nominated by Granta magazine as one of the 20 'Best of Young British Novelists'.

In 2018, he published Wrestliana, his memoir about wrestling, writing, losing and being a man.

His novel, A Writer's Diary, was published by Galley Beggar Press on January 1st 2022.

A Writer's Diary continues daily on Substack.

He lives in London and is the Head of Creative Writing at the University of Southampton.

Reviews

[Peter · Rating 1 out of 5]

The year is 1995 and Mary has returned from University to Bedford. She is bored and goes to a party where she meets three people, Jack, Neal and Maggie, Bedford's self-confessed 'Beats'. This group want to ignore anything that was created after 1966, for them the end of the Beat movement.

After joining the group for a 'Beat Happening' at the public library Mary decides that she wants to sleep with Jack because he looks dangerous, she becomes a fake Beatnik and even dates Neal so she can get to Jack. Mary, Jack and Neal along with his cat Koko set off to Brighton where they share bedroom threesomes but divisions between the group leads to Neal suddenly disappearing. When Koko dies Mary and Neal set off to America to scatter her ashes in New York and in California, crossing the country following in the footsteps of 'Sal' Jack Kerouac's hero in his novel 'The Road', Jack's favourite novel.

This book is meant as a warning against the danger of excesses and could have been so much more. The initial premise seems good, the Beat generation were an interesting sub-culture whose ethos was to be Bold, be Brave and be Balanced, members looked to reject materialism and sought experiences that were 'Real' which included sex, drugs and Eastern spirituality, even if this particular group's belief that it all suddenly ended in 1966 seemed a tad ludicrous.

The main problem with this book is that it just doesn't go anywhere despite its subtitle of 'An English Road Movie. Nor are any of the characters very likeable. Jack is a sexist egomaniac, Neal is quiet, easily influenced and has a thing for his cat which soon gets boring, Maggie isn't even necessary whilst Mary is in her own words 'a bitch' who despite not liking Jack as a person is still willing to follow him everywhere and do virtually everything that he suggests even if this means hurting Neal. Litt tries to fill his story with Beat expressions, like “dig,” “hip” and “man.” and whilst the dialogue feels fresh at certain moments it quickly stagnates.

When the book does finally get on the road it is dull and whilst Mary and Jack finally reach their destination the story doesn't and is left open ended. I continued reading it in the forlorn hope that it would improve but it never really raised its level above the dull and as such I can't in all honesty recommend it, there are far too many better books out there.

[Jonna. · Rating 2 out of 5]

If the author hadn't that interesting of a writing style I'd have stopped reading it long ago. The characters were boring and irrational, I couldn't sympathise with any of them; the story boring. Maybe I expected to much because I really like the whole beatnik theme but well: I really can't recommend this, I'm sorry.

[Printable Tire · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was completely baffled to find other reviews on here, as my copy is a discard from the library (only had three check outs) and is slapped together about as good as an iUniverse job, complete with a stock photo-looking cover. I’m even more surprised to see there’s favorable reviews, and that this book has its own pretty exhaustive Wikipedia page!

I bought my copy long ago, but I seem to remember I picked it up because the blurb on the back (and the stock photo cover) made me think it was going to be some sort of thriller, like Kalifornia, but with beatniks. Instead it’s sort of a young adult coming-of-age novel, except with lots of pretty graphic sex scenes (can you do that in young adult books? Apparently in the UK you can).

It reads like one long thought experiment or day dream, and a first draft one at that. The narrator is never really fleshed out so she seems almost like a psychopath trying on various roles, a talented Ms. Ripley. She, and we the readers seeing the world through her eyes, are kept at a distance from the other characters, and what should-be-emotional milestones. This cool detachedness is sort of a character trait, but since she neither overcomes it nor is called out for it from any of the other characters it just appears to be a convenient, first-draft writing sort of thing.

Jack, a major character, is equally flat. We’re told by the narrator he’s handsome (she’s obsessed with him), and he must be, because otherwise he has no apparent charisma. Since we readers can’t actually see him, all we’re left with are the words of a boring stereotypical jerk, a barely sketched out personality with no discernible characteristics other than the whole beatnik lingo gimmick.

That beatnik gimmick reminds me a bit of high school. I was really into the beats then, and, maybe, to a certain degree, could have acted like Jack or his friend Dean. But these characters are at least in their early 20’s, and by then earnest hipster jiving should be embarrassing to anybody. But maybe it's a British thing. When I was over there it appeared youth culture was 30 years behind America’s, intentionally or not.

The beatnik gimmick is really there for novelty’s sake. Jack and Dean appear comically stereotypical, not real people but plot devices. They don't realize how impossible it is to live up to the beatnik creed, isn’t that funny? What “beat” means has no real weight on the plot; they could be obsessed with anything else (fly fishing, bowling, flappers, cowboys) and it would make little difference. For the convenience of the plot, they have been compelled to be obsessed with something.

Okay, there’s one bad poetry reading. But the promise of a bad poetry journal never materializes. Instead the plot abruptly shifts to America, and then I started really hating this book.

First off, Jack and Mary (the narrator) stay at the Chelsea hotel. The Chelsea fucking hotel? This trip to America is being funded by an (apparently endlessly) wealthy weirdo for no really good reason, but still. It wouldn’t even bother me that they’re staying at the Chelsea hotel, but them staying there, again, serves no real purpose. It’s not described in any memorable way. It’s not bad, nor good, but like nearly everything that happens to them in America, it’s just sort of a mediocre experience. Which, surprise, makes for mediocre reading.

They travel across America, by the way, via one of those "drive-away car" services. This is COMPLETE bullshit that only exists in fiction for the sake of a plot device. And anyway, if they can afford to stay at the Chelsea hotel, they could afforded to rent a car for two weeks.

Other little lazy things bothered me in this section as well. How come the narrator never mentions the weirdness of driving on the other side of the road? That's an easy example but all the little specifics that make good fiction are missing. The author reduces Denver to a corporate park. Clearly he’s never been to Denver, or if he has, was imaginatively blind when he was there. So much shit is thrown at Denver, and by extension America, reducing it to some sort of blando dullsville. It doesn’t speak well of the characters, and it really bothered me to read how Jack’s fantasy of On The Road had been shattered by the trip, because clearly he hadn’t ever read it. On The Road is really a celebration of squares and American life, seeing the same boring old things from a whole fresh new embracing angle. There’s nothing really hip about it. Jack is more a beatnik in the vein of Dobie Gillis than Jack Kerouac, and Jack and Mary's revelation about America is some predicable garbage about how much it sucks.

I took a week or two off this book because I got so frustrated with its meandering travelogue and its shape-shifting guts (this book is about repressed homosexuality! No wait, it’s about youth subcultures!). Jack and Mary save themselves for a bit through quintessentially British snobbery towards America, but It’s short lived.

The ending of this novel is not ready for prime time. Jack and Mary have a quick argument they should've had 100 pages earlier to move the narrative forward. The last twenty or so pages are especially uneven and rushed, and the ending is so dumb I’m almost positive the author ran into a deadline and the publishers demanded a final product.

[Matti Karjalainen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nuori nainen tutustuu englantilaisen käpykylän kahteen tekotaiteelliseen runopoikaan, jotka ovat lukeneet Jack Kerouacia vähän turhan intensiivisesti ja joiden maailma on pysähtynyt vuoteen 1966, hetkeen jolloin Bob Dylan mukamas kuoli moottoripyöräonnettomuudessa.

Toby Littin "Beatnikit" (Sammakko, 2008) pitää sisällään seksiä, kolmiodraamaa, Brightonin kivisiä rantoja, melko teennäisen automatkan läpi Yhdysvaltojen ja aika epäuskottavia henkilöhahmoja. Vaikka me kaikki kannammekin oletettavasti kasvoillamme jonkinlaista naamioita, on silti aika vaikea uskoa, että edes elämäänsä etsivät nuoret aikuiset viitsisivät todella osallistua yhtä kokonaisvaltaiseen beatnik-roolileikkiin.

Lievennetään vähän: ei "Beatnikit" ihan tolkuttoman huono kirja ole ja sen lukee kertaalleen ihan kivutta lävitse, mutta eipä siitä loppujen lopuksi jää kauheasti käteen.

[Maya Panika · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read it because it was partially set in my old home town, but the little buzz I got from seeing familiar places mentioned was far, far and away the best bit of this novel for me. It had mixed reviews but I really wasn't prepared for just how bad it was. And the ending? Wtf was that?
I may feel up to writing a more detailed review at some point but for now, I just can't be bothered.

[Wawe Mapenzi · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked up this book on the streets of Nairobi when I saw the title because I knew it would be a nice and breezy read.
(I mean, who isn't a lil' fascinated by the Beats, even so?)

The book's premise is really good (basically, the book asks: what if Dylan actually died in that crash?) but I'm afraid that ultimately, it didn't quite live up to it. I'd call the book tongue-in-cheek fan-fic, particularly if you know something about the Beats, and the(often pretentious) beatniks. Also, what a frustrating end!

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is in three parts, and it took me until part two to get into. I went through stages of liking the characters, then disliking them, and by the end I couldn't decide either way.


The book heavy references On the road by Jack Kerouac, I have read this so did get the references, though you could still get the gist of the story without knowing the plot of on the road.

[Ivaylo Dimitrov · Rating 2 out of 5]

I tried really hard to find a reason to give more stars to this book and I can't.
The second star is because it somehow managed to keep me browsing to the last page and I am a picky reader who would rather drop a boring book

[seda · Rating 4 out of 5]

She had a face straight out a magazine
God only knows, but you'll never leave her
Her balaclava is starting to chafe
And when she gets his gun
He's begging, "Babe, stay, stay
Stay, stay, stay"

going to be my little treasure.

[Yana · Rating 1 out of 5]

Безсмислена.

[Aislinn Forrest · Rating 4 out of 5]

It look me a little while to get into this book, but by the end I really enjoyed it! It's not the typical kind of book of go for and in all honesty I chose it because the front cover looked cool. I'd happily read this book again in the future and would be likely to recommend it to and friends that are looking to get back into reading, as it is quite an easy read and a relatively simple storyline to follow. There were parts of the book that, without giving away any spoiler, were frankly just weird and at first put me off finishing the book for a few days, but after powering through the weirdness it proved worth the while as it was a really interesting and enjoyable read overall!

[Stephen Hayes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this novel about wannabe beatniks in Bedford, England, perhaps because I too was a wannabe beatnik. The point here being that a wannabe beatnik is a wannabe wannabe, at two removes from the real thing. There were the Beats, a literary countercultural movement of the 1950s, and then there were their groupies, their hangers on, nicknamed "beatniks" by a journalist, by analogy with sputnik, the first artificial satellite to orbit the earth, launched from the Soviet Union in 1957, the year in which Jack Kerouac's novel On the road was published. As sputnik orbited the earth, so did beatniks orbit the Beats.

The problem is that the characters in this book, Jack and Neal and Maggie and Mary are just about 40 years too late. Jack and Neal are not their real names, they have adopted the names of their heroes, Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady. Jack, especially, is obsessive about being "cool" and "hip", and sees them as angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night. But in the rather middle-class surroundings of Bedford it is rather difficult to picture them as those who poverty and tatters and hollow-eyed and high sat up smoking in the supernatural darkness of cold-water flats floating across the tops of cities contemplating jazz, to quote Allen Ginsberg's poem Howl. Ginsberg read his poem at a now-legendary poetry reading in San Francisco, which sparked off a poetry renaissance. So in the book Jack organises a poetry reading in the Bedford Public library, reading his own poetry, which even his admirer Mary has to admit is excruciatingly bad.

As Jack Kerouac's character Sal Paradise goes on the road, hitch-hiking across America, so Jack and Company go on the road... to Brighton, where they stay with a dead poet's uncle, and try to live up to Jack's impossible ideals of hipness and coolness, and will not acknowledge anything that has happened in the world after about 1966. But there is also a sense in which they get the time-frame wrong. Jack tries to follow the scenario of On the road, but though it was published in 1957, it was about the Beats of the 1940s, not the 1950s, and by the mid-1960s it was almost all over, though it had a kind of revival, in a form that Jack could not accept, in the hippie movement of the 1960s.

To say much more about the story would reveal too much of the plot, except that in the end even Jack comes to realise that he has been trying to live an impossible dream, and the shattering of his illusions has shattering consequences for them all.

The basic problemm, of course, is that to be obsessed with the ideal of "coolness" is the antithesis of cool, and the harder they try to adhere to it, the farther away it recedes. So Jack becomes a kind of Great Gatsby of the 1990s, trying to relive an imagined past.

I don't think you have to be familiar with Beat Generation literature to enjoy this book, but it wouldn't hurt to have read a couple of books by Jack Kerouac, and Ginsberg's poem Howl.

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a little strange. Having absolutely adored On The Road I was intrigued to find out what this book was about. The overall storyline is that Mary meets Jack and Neal (not their real names, but taken from Kerouac and Cassady of the Beat generation). These two believe that they live in time before the 1966 and that nothing past this time is "hip" and worthy of acknowledging. They even wear dark glasses when out and about in order to avoid being offended by anything that is not hip. She is attracted by the mysterious Jack and attempts to get closer to him through a relationship with Neal. After causing his girlfriend Maggie to go off in a strop she soon finds out that the two boys are closer than she thinks. Free love is also part of their beliefs and after a road trip to Brighton she become involved in a manage a trois which ultimately ends up destructive with Neal disappearing feared dead. While he is gone his beloved cat dies of pining and his hippy mother suggests Jack and Mary go to America and make a pilgrimage from East to West (following in the tracks of Kerouac) to scatter the cats ashes. (She believes in something to do with I-ching bringing her son back). During this trip Mary - and especially Jack - come to terms with who they really are without hiding behind pretenses. Neal eventually turns up and Jack and Neal have a fight over the cats ashes causing Jack to disappear this time - and that's how it ends.
I really liked the way it handles the boredom and cynicism of England in the 90s and the ideology and romanticism of America during the 60s. Both groups were searching for something - in fact every generation is looking for more and becoming more and more disillusioned by it all - but it is this era that is looked back on with a sense of rose-tinted nostalgia.
I liked the open and honest narration of Mary.
I thought the plot lacked a little in substance and I thought it took the opportunity to name-check quite liberally, it could be at risk of seeming a tiny bit pretentious. i think it would lack appeal to anyone not into Kerouac and the Beats but on the flip side if you are a lover of On the Road you also hope for a bit more from this book - a bit of a deeper tale. I also felt really cheated by the ending - I suppose it was trying to be clever but in my eyes all it succeeded in doing was ruining the book. I've rated it three stars as I feel there is an interesting edge to the book and parts are very poignant but the ending is certainly not worthy of the three star rating.

[Shob · Rating 3 out of 5]

What Toby Litt has done here is basically attempt to re-tell On the Road for a new generation. However, instead of the sprawling Americas of the 60's, its set in Brighton, England in the mid-90s.

Of course, it's a dumbed down, tounge-in-cheek. much shorter version that cannot be compared to Kerouac's epic. However, on its own, it is a fun book to read.

The plot is paper-thin and is basically about how Mary wants to get with Jack. Unfortunately Jack is with Maggie, and Jack's best bud - Neal - falls in love with Mary instead. All this is fine and dandy, except for the fact that Jack, Maggie and Neal are "beatniks" - i.e. they're stuck in the era of 1966. And do not listen, read or consider anything that comes after that era of any importance. So Mary does what she thinks is best, try to come become a "beatnik" herself to blend in, and lead Neal on to get closer to Jack.

This does lead to some quirky goings-on in the story, which is told from Mary's point of view. The "On The Road" part comes in when they all jump in a car to drive to Brighton to work with Neal's uncle on their own "hip" newsletter. Here is where things in the "love triangle" get a little messy, and it makes them face their own demons and flawed perceptions.

A turn of events then leads the characters to America to re-take that legendary cross-country drive, one city at a time.

Overall, this is a light-hearted coming-of-age story that should not be taken that seriously. Litt does write humour well, and makes even the most absurd parts of the story seem plausible. A fairly decent read.

*SPOILER NOTE*: A lot of reviewers have panned this book because of the open ending. But frankly, when u come to think of it, could it have ended any other way? Litt is mimicking Kerouac after all.

[Suncan Stone · Rating 3 out of 5]

This seems to be a book highly disregarded by Kerouac fans, but I think that this is just because they are looking to closely to find Jack in it. Because basically, this book would not exist if there was no On the road. The main character is Jack, who is a beatnik poet wannabe from English suburbia, and who always carries around a copy of On the road with him... Even though he is living in England in the 90s he believes that he lives in the 60s and that America is the promised land... But I liked the book (maybe that is partially linked to the fact that I was not the greatest fan of Kerouac's On the road - which does not mean I do not like the beatniks) as I found this to be more my style. I think it is a great hommage to On the road and the beatniks, because surely anybody who has not read them before will want to read some of their stuff once they read this book.

[Matti · Rating 3 out of 5]

On vuosi 1995 uinuvassa perienglantilaisessa pikkukaupungissa, kun parikymppinen Mary kohtaa parin jätkän ja gimman beatnik-porukan kotibileissä. Tämä tiivis porukka elää omassa kuplassaan, jossa kaikki vuoden -66 jälkeinen on turhaa hapatusta ja epäcoolia. Maryä raivostuttaa jengin elitismi, mutta kokee kuitenkin inhonsekaista vetoa porukan johtajaan Jackiin. Seuraa omintakeinen kolmio(?)draama, joka huipentuu kaverusten suunnatessa yhdessä tien päälle.

Kerronnassa on imua, joka sai lukemaan teoksen melkeinpä yhdeltä istumalta. Hahmot jäävät aika pinalliseksi, mutta toisaalta jutun pointti onkin Jackin ja kumppaneiden käsittämättömyys. Tykkäsin kuivasta huumorista ja moraalittomasta menosta.

Jos sellaiset nimet kuin Bob Dylan, Allen Ginsberg tai Jack Kerouac ovat tuttuja, tästä kirjasta saa enemmän irti. Kokonaisuudessa ihan viihdyttävä juttu, muttei kuitenkaan sen enempää.

[Trevor · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book a little odd.
The opening was very good (written about Bob Dylan) and was enough to entice me to buy the book. However I felt conned since the rest of the book is unlike the first few pages, and disappointingly nowhere near as good.
The ending scenes set in America seemed rather contrived and the ending is one of the strangest and least satisfying I have ever come across, almost as if the author had to meet a deadline or thought enough was enough. If the latter was the reason then I think I shared that emotion.
I'd like to read the book that could have followed the promising opening.

[Tzeck · Rating 4 out of 5]

Взех тази книжка от един панаир за 2 лв. Не очаквах нищо. Даже по-скоро очаквах да не ми хареса. А тя взе, че ми хареса. Дори ме изненада. На няколко пъти, колкото и тривиална да изглежда на пръв поглед историята на няколко английски младежа от средата на 90-те, запалени по битническата култура и с персонална библия "По пътя", въобразяващи си, че живеят още в 60-те. По-скоро забавен, по-скоро младежки роман, но с неочаквани дълбочинни пропадания от време на време, с интересен сюжет и персонажи, с много музика, с много младежки бунт, обречен и безсмислен и именно заради това чист и красив, с малко би-секс, поезия и повече загатната, отколкото реална смърт. Като за два лева - отлично четиво.

[Hanna Huovinen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Parilla eurolla antikvariaatista mukaan sattunut pokkari, joka toimi oikein mukavasti sairaspetilukemisena. Teennäisistä älyttömyyksistä huolimatta sujuva ja ulkopuolisuuden kokemukset tunnistettavia.

[Corey J · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was set to give this averagely enjoyable read four stars until I got to the lazy ending. You’re not starting a franchise mate. Stop it.

[Hannah Eiseman-Renyard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read it four times, still going strong.

My favourite book of all time, without a doubt.