Portland Public Library

The voice is all, the lonely victory of Jack Kerouac, Joyce Johnson

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 439-471) and index

index present

non fiction

The voice is all

bibliography

774147822

Joyce Johnson

the lonely victory of Jack Kerouac

This work, a profile of the iconic author's early years offers insight into his efforts to bridge his dual cultural heritage while exploring how his French Canadian background enriched his proseThe author peels away layers of the Kerouac legend to show how, caught between two cultures and two languages, he forged a voice to contain his dualities. She shows how Kerouac's French Canadian background enriched his prose and gave him a unique outsider's vision of America. Kerouac exhibited a kind of idiosyncratic perfectionism, and his legendary "spontaneous" writing was preceded by a series of abandoned novels in which characters, episodes, and story lines were continually reshuffled

Franco-American ghosts : The lost brother ; Jean-Louis Kerouac -- A half-American boyhood : La Salle de Mort ; A Catholic education ; Pawtucketville ; Football hero ; First love -- An uprooting : Manhattan ; The summer of Sebastian ; Columbia ; The escape -- The War : At sea ; Edie Parker -- The libertine circle : The season of Lucien ; Birth of a symbolist ; Apartment ; Benzedrine weekends ; A father's death -- Postwar : Enter Neal Cassady ; The road ; Reaching California ; Ozone Park -- "White ambitions" : The conquest of Manhattan ; The summer of visions and parties ; Enter John Clellon Holmes ; "The rudeness of being" -- "Rain and Rivers" : "Wither goest thou in thy shiny car at night?" ; A change in luck ; Continental divide ; The edge of success ; The French Canadian older brother -- The "rush of truth" : The unwritable road novel ; The girl with the innocent and pure eyes ; "The voice is all" ; The road opens up ; Deep form -- Interior music : Visions of Neal ; Tranced fixations ; Rêves