A never-before-published book of poems by Jack Kerouac?in a deluxe package
In 1952 and 1953 as he wandered around America, Jack Kerouac jotted down spontaneous prose poems, or"sketches" as he called them, on small notebooks that he kept in his shirt pockets. The poems recount histravels?New York, North Carolina, Lowell (Massachusetts, Kerouac?s birthplace), San Francisco, Denver,Kansas, Mexico?observations, and meditations on art and life. The poems are often strung together so thatover the course of several of them, a little story?or travelogue?appears, complete in itself. Published forthe first time, Book of Sketches offers a luminous, intimate, and transcendental glimpse of one ofthe most original voices of the twentieth century at a key time in his literary and spiritual development.
专业书评
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Somewhere between diary, verbal sketchbook and play-by-play account of whatever passed before his eyes, this collection of poems transcribed from notebooks Kerouac kept in his pocket between 1952 and 1954 turns out to rank with his most interesting work. From clipped descriptions of America's underbelly ("a pile of junk, the/ girders of the viaduct have / great black bolt heads/ like knobs of a / sweating steel black/ city") to vague hipster prophesying ("The next great con-/ flict will be between/ Hip Christ"), Whitmanesque embraces of his fellow man ("...I have cared/ for ye dutchmen"), love notes to famous beatnik friends ("O Allen Sad Allen Ah / Mystery") and sad, self-deprecating prayers ("Drink is good for/ love good for/ music let it/ be good for writing"), Kerouac hits all the notes for which he and his fellow beats are known. While not everything here is golden, the immediacy and unpretentiousness of this off-the-cuff writing makes it an intimate glimpse into the consciousness of a man who simply couldn't stop observing. A short, aggrandizing introduction by painter George Condo sets the tone. (Apr.)
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From Booklist
Kerouac admirers know of the legendary writer's habit of carrying a small notebook in his shirt pocket to jot down his impressions. But it is not common knowledge that this peripatetic observer typed up the contents of the journals he filled from mid-1952 through 1954 to create a manuscript he titled Book of Sketches. This collection of in-the-moment jottings, the literary equivalent of rapidly executed drawings, is now published for the first time. Whitmanesque in his embrace of life, painterly in his details, and enthralled by the texture of language, Kerouac describes the "longroar of sea," hitchhiking in North Carolina, and finding himself naked among trees in Mexico, suffering "the terrible benzedrine / depression after big / night of drinking." He remembers "childhood dreams," wishes for a woman, marvels over the unexpected beauty of a Denver barbershop, and frets over "TV stupidities" and "Americans / who only think in / terms of paranoia & oil." Restless, receptive, and hungry for divinity, Kerouac continues to feed our collective imagination in yet another treasure from his precious archives. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
媒体推荐
Recounting Jack Kerouac's travels, observations, and meditations on art and life, this never-before-published book of poems is offered in a deluxe package featuring French flaps. 作者简介
George Condo is a painter and sculptor who has exhibited extensively in both the United States and Europe. He has received an Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
| 出版社 | Penguin |
|---|---|
| 作者 | Jack Kerouac |