Columns
Monday, May 7 2012
International Beats: The Desire for the Foreign in Kerouac's 'On the Road'
With the film adaptation of On the Road just a month away, it's important to once again define what characterized the Beat movement: an infatuation with the foreign.
Friday, October 23 2009
The Name of This Land is Hell: Mexico in Literature
When the author of a sitcom-styled novel about Mexican heritage cannot resist mentioning the modern-day carnage, then it's fair to assume that the murders have become a significant part of the national identity.
Friday, March 20 2009
Little Murders: And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks
This is not Tom Brokaw’s Greatest Generation but, rather, Hunter S. Thompson’s Generation of Swine, the urban home front during the waning days of World War II, gritty and unvarnished, and chillingly reflective of modern sociology.
Reviews
Friday, May 27 2011
'The Typewriter is Holy': The Beat Generation Put to Paper
Bill Morgan’s success here is the documentation of Allen Ginsberg’s development from a shy and desperate young man, eager to please his charismatic peers, to a strong and assured figure, involved with developing the careers of his fellow artists.
Blogs
Friday, September 10 2010
The Discovery of the Identity of Jack Kerouac's 'Watermelon Man'
Who was the watermelon man of Jack Kerouac's great Lowell-fantasy novel, 'Dr. Sax'?
Thursday, September 17 2009
Nine Booze-Soaked Books
Putting aside obvious selections like Charles R. Jackson’s The Lost Weekend, Malcolm Lowry’s harrowing Under the Volcano, or essentially anything written by Charles Bukowski, we…
News
Thursday, March 29 2012
Jack Kerouac’s ‘The Sea Is My Brother’ is finally published in its entirety
First the good news: Jack Kerouac’s “lost” novel “The Sea Is My Brother” (Da Capo, $23) isn’t entirely unreadable. In fact, the book — written…
Thursday, October 2 2008
Kerouac manuscript unscrolled for Beat exhibit
When Jack Kerouac sat down at his typewriter to write what would become his landmark novel, "On the Road," he didn't want to be slowed…
Friday, October 5 2007
Jack Kerouac's sound of America
OK, so here I am, sitting in front of a computer, 50 years after the fact of the matter -- which is the publication, on…
