Understanding Jack Kerouac

A companion to the novels of the king of the Beats. It introduces readers to what Matt Theado calls Kerouac's 'unwieldy accretion of published work' - fiction, poetry, nonfiction, selected letters, religious writing, and 'true-story novels'.

This is a concise companion to the novels of the king of the Beats. ""Understanding Jack Kerouac"" introduces readers to what Matt Theado calls Kerouac''s ''unwieldy accretion of published work'' - fiction, poetry, nonfiction, selected letters, religious writing, and ''true-story novels''. Presenting this cultural icon of the Beat Generation primarily as a writer rather than as a social rebel or media celebrity, Theado elucidates the reasons Kerouac''s reputation has outlived disparaging beatnik associations and why his writings continue to attract an expanding readership. Theado takes a book-by-book approach to the sometimes-confusing canon and develops a framework for understanding Kerouac''s thematic concerns, writing techniques, and artistic evolution. Proposing that the real legend of Jack Kerouac is the saga of a writer at work, Theado suggests that as recognition of Kerouac''s artistic achievement grows, the Duluoz Legend - Kerouac''s series of barely fictionalized re-creations of his life - outgrows the genre of autobiography and becomes an intimate chronicle of a writer''s stylistic maturation. Theado traces Kerouac''s development as a crafter of language and contends that spontaneous prose, Kerouac''s literary hallmark, may prove to be his chief claim to literary longevity.