Go

By John Clellon Holmes and Clellon Holmes

Book Overview

Before the beats had become the Beats-that occurred later on in the 1950s, after the publication of On the Road-John Clellon Holmes charted in Go their manic exploration of the unconscious, their feverish quest for experience, their glorification of crime. It was he who introduced that generation-and in collaboration with Jack Kerouac, the term that would define it: The Beat Generation. Upon re-reading Go in 1976, 24 years after its first publication, Holmes had fleeting doubts about the truth of what he had written. "Did we really resemble these feverish young men, these centerless young women, awkwardly reaching out for love, for hope, for comprehension of their lives & times?" he writes in the introduction. "Can this picture of the New York of twenty-five year ago be accurate? I can attest that it is. These were the places we live in , the events that occurred, the way we talked, & the things we talked about. In this sense, the book is almost literal truth, sometimes a truth too literal to be poetically true, which is the only truth that matters in literature." Go is an insider's look at the coming of age of the Beat Generation.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0938410601
• ISBN13: 9780938410607
• Release Date: January 1988
• Publisher: Thunder's Mouth Press
• Length: 311 Pages
• Weight: 0.87 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Early Beat Chronicles

The author has been generally ignored as to his place in the formative years of Beat-O-Roma, and this book becomes a good background check on his impressive"credentials". He certainly can't write with that jazz laced pen which Keroauc used to set the toneof beat writings, but his story really sheds a lot of light upon the struggles which this anarcisticmovement bestowed upon its followers.All in all, if you like beat culture you will probabley find this to be an enjoyable read.

No better chronicle of daily BEAT life

as the above says, I have not encountered a novel that offered a better look into the daily lives of the beats from a "sort of" outsiders point of view.

This book is one of the best I have ever rea

I think that when it comes to the beat generation there is no other book to cronicle it. GO really gives you the base charactarization that can allow you to understand even further the other beat generation works. Especially allen ginsberg, and jack kerouac.

Must read Beat Generation history

First novel, based on actual events, to actually open the window shades on the Beats. Ginsburg, Kerouac, they're all in here. Feel what it was like living in New York in the early 50's with all the hip-cats. Go, man, go

Excellent early-Beat background around Columbia University.

If you love the Beat writers, this early novel (published in '52) will please you. It portrays Beat development in late '40s Manhattan. The main characters are Ginsberg, Kerouac and Holmes before they were famous