Big Sur

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Very Readable - Rated
Beat literature seems very popular again right now, and this book is one of Kerouac's most readable. The sentences flow together, and images are easily portrayed with minimal fuss and maximum impact.

As this is one of the last books that the author wrote, there is a strong feeling of self-contemplation, with the author tuning in most immediately to his encounters with the wild beats of the ocean on the shores of Big Sur. You sense while reading this the smallness of the human soul when placed up next to the unimaginable forces of nature, and it is therefore with some relief that when you close the book and draw the curtains, the rhythms of regulated life can take their proper place once more.

Escaping from the Beat - Rated
This is a book written by Kerouac several years after On the Road had made him famous. Fame did not sit easily with him and most of this book is his attempt to escape from fame and the notoriety it brings. I found this a sad book after OTR because although Kerouac exhibited a certain amount of youthfull insanity in the story of his crazy trips across America, in Big Sur the realisation has hit him that he may actually be insane. This is a very troubled book, but none the worse for that, just sad when you know that Kerouac died a few short years later, in his early forties, from the results of his drug and alcohol fuelled life.

BIG SUR - Rated
By the time of writing "Big Sur" Keoruac had developed this style of spontaneous writing and had a certain confidence in his work that payed remarkable dividends. His discriptions of the coastal retreat "Big Sur" are lively and poetic. For example "But there's moonlight fognight, the blossoms of the fire flames in the stove - There's giving an apple to the mule, the big lips taking hold" Many sections of this text are poetic, and indeed there is a poem entitled "Sea" at the back of this edition. Early on in the novel Kerouac understands from a letter from his mother that his beloved family cat has just passed away, he explains his grief in such a way that you actually feel pity for him and excuse him for getting nasty drunk to the cat's memory.

Big Sur is a very personal novel, a cry from a man on the edge of a alcohol induced nervous breakdown. It is somwhat sad in parts, altough there are many more jolly and even funny moments penned by Jack probably in less sober conditions. This book is all about getting behind the myth and understanding the real Jack Kerouac. As such, this novel will give a better insight into Kerouacs life than any biography, or even perhaps any other Kerouac novel.

beautiful - Rated
This is the first of Kerouac's books I have read. Somewhat of a strange beginning being that it was towards the end of his life.

I was truly touched by Kerouac's prose and felt both enlightened and saddened by the content.

In all honesty I loved it, completely autobiographical I really felt I knew Kerouac. I felt that I had made a friend in him.

The story of Kerouac's descent into madness and alcoholism - Rated
Like most of Kerouac's other works, this is autobiographical. Kerouac writes of his attempts to get away from the pressures of fame by hiding out in a friend's cabin, out in the wilderness of Big Sur. Unfortunately he finds himself still sinking into old habits and cracking up.

This is, in all honesty something of a difficult book in places - Kerouac's prose is somewhat unorthodox and may require some getting used to, yet this book is so vivid in some places that it is well worth the effort. It's like nothing I've ever read before. Although it's not a happy book, there are parts of it that are oddly sweet and touching.

I'd recommend reading On The Road first to put this all in some kind of context.