First published 2008
Douglas Brinkley chronicles the turbulent life of Jack Kerouac, the novelist who captured America's postwar restlessness in "On the Road." Brinkley traces Kerouac's journey from his working-class childhood in Lowell, Massachusetts, through his years at Columbia University, where he met Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs. The biography follows Kerouac's cross-country travels with Neal Cassady, his struggles with publishers who rejected his spontaneous prose style, and his battles with alcoholism and fame after literary success arrived. Brinkley explores how Kerouac's Catholic upbringing and French-Canadian heritage shaped his writing, and examines the price he paid for becoming the reluctant spokesman of the Beat Generation. The book reveals a complex figure torn between his desire for literary recognition and his need for solitude, offering readers an intimate portrait of the man behind the myth.
Genres: biography, 20th-century, american, biography-memoir, 21st-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: complex-protagonist, reluctant-hero
Setting: Columbia University, Lowell, Massachusetts
Period: Postwar
Hardcover · Viking Books
Content warnings: addiction, alcohol-abuse