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The Voice Is All: The Lonely Victory Of Jack Kerouac (2012)

by Joyce Johnson(Favorite Author)

3.86 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0670025100 (ISBN13: 9780670025107)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Viking Adult

review 1: I first read Kerouac's "On the Road" when I was about 16; it gave me my life-long love of road trips, introduced me to stream of consciousness writing, and opened my young eyes to life beyond my sheltered upbringing. The Voice is All took me back and introduced a Kerouac I had never imagined. Because he was so much older, my image of him was of a tough older writer, however Johnson in the book shows a very young boy to a mid-twenties man experiencing life and writing about it obsessively. Loved the book. Wish she hadn't stopped in mid-stream long before the publication of "On the Road". Hopefully, since she has access to his personal papers and archives she will be writing a sequel.
review 2: “The Voice is All” is Joyce Johnson’s third biography/memo... moreir of Jack Kerouac. Her two previous works are "Minor Characters: A Beat Memoir" and "Door Wide Open: A Beat Love Affair in Letters, 1957-1958" which was co-written by Kerouac. I have to be honest, I hadn’t heard of Jack Kerouac prior to being contacted by Penguin Group with a review opportunity. I love a good biography so decided to give The Voice is All a read. Joyce Johnson has obviously done her homework as displayed in the daunting list of research sources. But with so many previous biographies on Jack Kerouac it is unlikely Johnson revealed any further insight however I truly cannot be sure. Having said that, I did enjoy the read.The book chronicles Kerouac’s struggles to make his mark in the literary world, covering his formative years, through to age thirty, when he published his most notable book “On the Road”. The epitome of a starving artist Kerouac spent most of his life homeless and moneyless. Keeping company with a lifelong group of friends, some of which spurred on questions of Kerouac’s sexual preferences, but ultimately he was a womanizer, alcoholic and opportunist. Born in Massachusetts the third child to a French Canadian family, Jack struggled with the death of his brother Gerard and experienced the toll it took upon his doting mother and his ne’er-do-well father. Always trying to live up to his father’s expectations Kerouac pursued his love for football garnering a scholarship and recruiters for major teams. After a sports injury that sidelined Kerouac he left university and over the years that followed he would be in and out of university several times.During the course of his lifetime until his timely death, (a time period not included in this biography), he wrote some 28 books including fiction, poetry and other works, but he is best known for "On the Road" and "Visions of Cody." If you are a student or a fan of Jack Kerouac’s writing, you can’t go wrong with "The Voice is all: The Lonely Victory of Jack Kerouac." The book is informative but definitely not a light read but one that is definitely worth the read. Disclaimer: This book was given to me by Penguin Group in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. less

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