{"product_id":"desolate-angel-jack-kerouac-the-beat-generation-and-america-9780306812224","title":"Desolate Angel: Jack Kerouac, the Beat Generation, and America","description":"\u003cb\u003e\"A blockbuster of a biography . . . absolutely magnificent.\"--\u003ci\u003eSan Francisco Chronicle\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eJack Kerouac--\"King of the Beats,\" unwitting catalyst for the '60s counterculture, groundbreaking author--was a complex and compelling man: a star athlete with a literary bent; a spontaneous writer vilified by the New Critics but adored by a large, youthful readership; a devout Catholic but aspiring Buddhist; a lover of freedom plagued by crippling alcoholism.\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003eDesolate Angel\u003c\/i\u003e follows Kerouac from his childhood in the mill town of Lowell, Massachusetts, to his early years at Columbia where he met Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, and Neal Cassady, beginning a four-way friendship that would become a sociointellectual legend. In rich detail and with sensitivity, Dennis McNally recounts Kerouac's frenetic cross-country journeys, his experiments with drugs and sexuality, his travels to Mexico and Tangier, the sudden fame that followed the publication of \u003ci\u003eOn the Road, \u003c\/i\u003ethe years of literary triumph, and the final near-decade of frustration and depression.\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eDesolate Angel\u003c\/i\u003e is a harrowing, compassionate portrait of a man and an artist set in an extraordinary social context. The metamorphosis of America from the Great Depression to the Kennedy administration is not merely the backdrop for Kerouac's life but is revealed to be an essential element of his art . . . for Kerouac was above all a witness to his exceptional times.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Da Capo Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 03\/20\/2003\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780306812224\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 416\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.40lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.16h x 6.06w x 1.12d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReview Citations: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e 08\/01\/2003 pg. 143\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Dennis McNally","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":36635531739292,"sku":"9780306812224","price":21.24,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/products\/img_990d5321-abb4-4f53-8786-ea93a013daa5.jpg?v=1603839817","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/desolate-angel-jack-kerouac-the-beat-generation-and-america-9780306812224","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}