Tristessa Summary and Reviews

Tristessa
by Jack Kerouac

Tristessa
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Book Summary Information

Author: Jack Kerouac
Foreword: Aram Saroyan
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1992-06-01
ISBN: 0140168117
Number of pages: 96
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)

Book Reviews of Tristessa

Book Review: Kerouac's most overlooked novel, and his best.
Summary: 5 Stars

Kerouac has fallen in and out of cult hero worship, for many reasons. He was the forefather of the spectacularly popular Beat Generation, his books are full of raw energy and rebellion, and he died of a brain hemorrhage watching "The Galloping Gourmet". These are all wonderful reasons to read "On the Road" or "Subterraneans". Do not read "Tristessa" for these reasons. Read "Tristessa" for its pure Kerouac voice, for its wonderful hollow music which echoes the wildest romantic poets, the heroin-desperate streets of Mexico City, and the soul of Kerouac himself. This is Kerouac's most haunting, melodic, and starkly religious work, the story of true love and the lie of love, the story of hope and of the crush of drugs, poverty and despair. To read this book is to be Kerouac, to be crazy-drunk with no place to sleep and no money to eat, but to be crying with happiness because the woman you love is unconscious in the gutter beside you. You can hear the words inside your head long after you close the book... "shouldna done it Lord, Awakenerhood, shouldna played the suffering-and-dying game with the children in your own mind, shoulda whistled for the music and danced..." "I love her but the song is---broken---"

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