The Subterraneans

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one of the best - Rated
short and sprawling with some of the most beautiful prose ever written - and kerouac wrote it in 3 nights, filled with 1950s amphetamine. better and more wildly written than the chopped-down, straightlaced "on the road," though the story doesn't have the same grip. the fellow who was expecting a "big poetic book" (it's only a small one, after all) and who's complaining about page-long parenthesis must have a different idea to kerouac than most people, since these page-long parenthesis are often full of some of his most affecting, free-flowing prose. "and i go home having lost her love. and write this book." buy it, if you want.

If you had an eternity to spare... - Rated
Being a fan of Kerouac's dreamy style, I bought the subterraneans hoping for a great poetic account of the life of Jack and his fellow beats. However this was not to be the case. A short read that seems to last a lifetime, it is just tooo involved. Epic (100-page) love stories are not Kerouacs forte, and it is seen here as he drifts aimlessly from his classic style of combining concise with fantastical. Here he opts for uninteresting events and horrific amounts of detail (page long brakets anyone? Or perhaps the most unreadable parenthesis in commentary ever?).

Of course its not all bad, its Jack...

The Subterraneans does, for all its boring elaboration on stagnant relationships, have some decent imagery to picture the uneventfulness in. Another very nice touch in this editon is where in the foreword the 'true identities' of the subterraneans is revealed and reading about what Ginsberg, Burroughs and even the orginal Dean Moriarty got up to is a pleasant distraction.

For anyone who has been in love, you may enjoy this book. For the adventurers of 'On The Road' or the dreamers of 'Doctor Sax', I suggest you look elsewhere.

Incredibly Beautiful - Rated
For someone unused to the Beat style of Kerouac or Ginsberg, this book came out of nowhere and is now the book I would recommend to all who have loved, who have lost, and who desire love in the loneliness of their lives. This incredibly elegant and beautifully written tale of love lost through mistrust and jealousy is a work of poetic genius, weaving the Beat streets of 40's and 50's San Francisco around you as you delve into the life of the Subterraneans. A love story, a race story, a story for all,it climaxes in an incredible paragraph that speaks volumes on the subject of love and loss. This is the one of the few books i would recommend to anyone. Shockingly unjustly treated in the recent BBC top 100 books poll.