Beat Generation

By Jack Kerouac and Rhino Records

Book Overview

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.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1560257423
• ISBN13: 9781560257424
• Release Date: September 2005
• Publisher: Thunder's Mouth Press
• Length: 120 Pages
• Weight: 0.54 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.3" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

I would have seen this play

This play reflects a week in Kerouac's life with ol time buddy Neal Cassidy..... existential discussions, race tracks, mysticism, and lots of drinking..... I am surprised this honest, plain hipster talking vignette....didn't get published or produced in its time, especially in NY...its smart...in your face, and stands today as a statement about real people living and dying the american dream albeit beyond the margins of acceptable culture of the time. You know thats it, Kerouac exposed the real working class america...this stuff has been going on forever ever since zealots and criminals formed this country..., The beats brought some of this out of the closet and took it into the open on their own cosmic terms... and caught the rancour and the exploitation of the media in the 50's.......I liked this play, I could see it performed off broadway or in colleges...

Dig This

For the record this book is a recently published play written by Kerouac during the era he wrote On The Road. If you have not read Kerouac prior I would not recomend begining with this book, however if you admire his work and The Beat Generation this new addition to the beat canon is an unexpected treat. Being a play it is lacking in Kerouac's beautiful descriptions, but the dialoge is just what we can expect from Kerouac. At times the dialoge resembles the portions of Visions of Cody in which Kerouac transcribes the conversations he records with a tape recorder. All the usual suspects are present, and easily recognizable--Jack, Neal Cassidy, Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, etc. The play takes place during one day of drinking, going to the race track, and ending at Neal's house to meet the spiritual guest he has over following a lecture. Throughout the work the characters discuss God and spirituality. Yet another example of the strong ties between the beats and spiritual questioning. The exhuberance and banter of this group of friends is always enjoyable to read. I would recomend this to anyone who is just discovering Kerouac or those of us who have a deep affinity with his body of work. Here is hoping that they unearth more treasures from his unpublished notebooks, and Kerouac can continue to bless us from beyond the grave.