Big Sur by Jack Kerouac Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Big Sur
Book Review: Lust for life
Summary: 5 Stars
This is my favourite Kerouac book. It's written with a real love for life and America's nature. Kerouac is a master in showing life is full of opportunities waiting for you, although the whole of society is created to teach a man not to see those opportunities. The end is surprisingly claustrophobic. Very, very good stuff.Book Review: My 2nd favorite Kerouac novel
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a story of a trip to the "woods" that was taken in hopes of straightening out a hoplessly fouled up life. While it has the complete opposite feel than the optimism of the Dharma Bums, it is like a continuation of the same story, after life has had it's way with the story teller. Although some people feel that Kerouac lost his abilities toward the latter part of his career. I believe this book shows that he did not. While I preferred the Dharma Bums, This would rank as my second favorite Kerouac "novel".
Book Review: One of the best descriptions of an alcoholic's suffering ...
Summary: 4 Stars
Nobody but Kerouac could describe the horror and suffering of alcoholism in lyrical, fluent prose. The opening pages show Kerouac's true gift as a writer. I often pick this book up at book stores and re-read the mesmerizing beginning where Jack wakes up 'all woe-begone and goopy' as the church bells play a mournful version of "I'll take you home again, Kathleen". He describes the alcoholic's hangover as the worst experience on earth -- like standing in pork blood as a 'mudman backbent monster' pulling 'a long hot burden to nowhere'. Atute readers will see hints of Jack's descent into depression and alcoholism in his earlier works. In "Big Sur" Jack openly acknowledges the nature of his suffering. Sadly, he would go on to drink himself to death. Kerouac's true gift lies in his original voice as an witer and not in being a joyful icon of the open road. "Big Sur" eloquently shows that the man suffered enormously.Book Review: One of the best descriptions of the horrors of alcoholism.
Summary: 4 Stars
The opening pages show Kerouac's true gift as a writer. The first 2 chapters are marked by fluent and haunting prose that describes the hopelessness and suffering of alcoholism. As others have remarked, the book is flawed, but a must for anyone who is interested in the Kerouac canon.Book Review: Powerful and Scary
Summary: 5 Stars
It's taken me about a year to process this book, having read it during a three-week motorcycle tour of the West in the summer of 2001. Big Sur is a much more mature work than On the Road. Kerouac was just finding his voice in On the Road. In Big Sur, he was dipping his pen into a very deep well of life experience that included shattered illusions and the horrors of alcoholism. By the time he wrote Big Sur, Kerouac had become a celebrity - something he never came to terms with - and he was a profoundly unbalanced and unhappy man. Nonetheless, he had an astonishing ability to get experiences that defy verbalization onto the page. His perceptions, especially in the throes of alcohol addiction, are incredibly acute and precise. Even if the events and conversations are complete fabrications, they ring of truth and reality and insight.This is not an "easy" book, but it's a real milestone in 20th century American literature.