Recently read The Town and the City. Strange that while it was Kerouac's first book, it is the last of his collection that I read. (OK, I haven't read EVERYTHING Jack wrote because, frankly, I'm not a big fan of his poetry.)
Though Kerouac can definitely get a little wordy, I really enjoyed this book. Kerouac is so well known for On the Road, spontaneous prose, and his SF/NY beat scene books, that it was actually very nice to read a book by Jack written in a more traditional prose style. Actually, having read his other works first it's kind of fun to see The Town and the City characters, subjects and style that would mark his more famous works.
If you're a fan of Kerouac I'd definitely recommend this book.
Though Kerouac can definitely get a little wordy, I really enjoyed this book. Kerouac is so well known for On the Road, spontaneous prose, and his SF/NY beat scene books, that it was actually very nice to read a book by Jack written in a more traditional prose style. Actually, having read his other works first it's kind of fun to see The Town and the City characters, subjects and style that would mark his more famous works.
If you're a fan of Kerouac I'd definitely recommend this book.
Different cover, but same ISBN. This is Kerouac's first novel, said to be somewhat biographical, but then again most of JK's books are. This one is different tho, as the characters do seem more like fictionalized characters than his usual host of easily identifiable characters based on real people (who constantly reappear in different guises) in subsequent novels like On The Road. This is an excellent book, espcially for a first offering, and it's interesting in hindsight to see how Kerouac developed his style as time moved forward.
One cannot exactly imagine On The Road coming from the writer who wrote The Town and the City. Nonetheless, Jack's forthcoming style can be sensed here and there, however slightly. As for this tome, it's good if not great, worthy of the reader's attention, and certainly of the Kerouac fan's attention.
