The Unknown Kerouac (LOA #283): Rare, Unpublished & Newly Translated Writings (Library of America Jack Kerouac Edition)

I just loved this wonderful book. Tender hearted lonesome Ti Jean spoke to me here more than any of his other writings. I got so tired of reading biographies centered on his "tragic" life, his drinking and his sexual partners. This is Jack's voice. This is the Jack people fell in love with, wanted to be around, write with, and yes, drink with. Many of the passages brought tears to my eyes. He is funny, tender, lonesome. He knows he has a vision and needs to write it all down.New to Kerouac? Know people who don't know Jack? Start here before you pick up one his heavier tomes. Je t'aime, Ti Jean!

I thought I had read all of Kerouac's writings. This happens with other favorite authors who have died - that day when you have read all of their creations, realizing that there will be no more. Well, this was a very pleasant surprise. Highly recommend to Kerouac fans.

An impressive find out of the Kerouac papers collection....two novels written originally in French, collected with various other bits.Kerouac remains one of the most original of 20th Century American writers.

No stars because the book never arrived

Kerouac.

Further testimony--as if any were needed--of Kerouac's greatness as writer. Even his cast-off productions unpublished during his lifetime and appearing here make for great reading. "Memory Babe," a 50 page piece included here is as deep and multitudinously layered a work of fiction as any of his published novels. "The Night Is My Woman," written in French, according to the liner notes, and translated here, is a great Saroyanesque piece about adolescent awakening in the work-a-day world of labor in America..."I Wish I Was You," Kerouac's novella-sized transformation, quite good, of "And the Hippo's Were Boiled in Their Tanks," (Burroughs/Kerouac novel pub. 2008) tells the "Fin De Siecle dray-ma" (as Kerouac called it) of the real-life murder Kerouac-crony Lucien Carr was convicted of--the same story told in Kerouac's 1967 novel VANITY OF DULUOZ...Would that the caretakers of Kerouac's legacy--should they be listening--continue publication of Kerouac's journals! (Following their 2004 publication.)

Fascinating collection of Kerouac's early writings in French, published by the Library of America in an elegant, easily portable edition in English. The translation gives a different Kerouac, one which reveals a developing writer appealing to readers of a different culture than the one he adapted to as an American Beat.

Better than his books because his words are completely unadulterated. And how I love his words. A wonderful experience of the man and the writer. What I sense in his books is revealed here in his story.

A nice publication for all Jack Kerouac fans. Great to read new writing from him.

Great book

Excellent Kerouac