num_pages: 370
description: With the publication of On the Road, in 1957, Jack Kerouac (1922-1969) became at once the spokesman and central figure of the Beat Generation. The subsociety of artists, writers, and visionaries, among whom were Allen Ginsberg, Neal Cassidy, William Burroughs, Gregory Corso, and their poetic historian Kerouac, brought a new romantic revolt to the bleak '40s and '50s, and sparked the formation of the '60s counterculture. Kerouac's restless pursuit of life, which led him to turn over every stone of experience, is continually rediscovered by the young, who find in Kerouac and the Beats a kindred rebellious spirit in search of new beliefs. Changing the face of contemporary American literature, Kerouac's incandescent, uniquely spontaneous prose style allowed him to record the secret soul of people and places. Jack Kerouac today remains a key figure in postwar American fiction.DESOLATION ANGELS, long out of print, describes Kerouac's life via his fictional self Jack Duluoz just before the publication of On the Road. After meditating at the brink of the world (as a fire lookout on Desolation Park) Duluoz travels to San Francisco and rejoins life: the lessons of eternity give way to lessons of human contact. Duluoz hitches, walks and talks through bars, strip joints, and jazz clubs, down Main Street, perceiving the angel that is in everything. Meeting up with his Beat cronies, he paints a picture of the diverse types who formed a (not always) harmonious community. They shift scenes from San Francisco to Mexico, from New York to Tangier, from Paris and London to Berkeley. Swept up in this maelstrom of poetry, sex and drugs, Duluoz attempts to extricate himself from the world but fails, for one must "live, travel, adventure, bless and don't be sorry." DESOLATION ANGELS is quintessential Kerouac.
language: English
title: Desolation Angels
titlecomplete: Desolation Angels
characters: Irwin Garden, Jack Duluoz, Harry Garden, Cody Pomeray, Bull Hubbard, Raphael Urso
genres: Fiction, 20th Century, Classics, Contemporary, Modern Classics, American, Literary Fiction, Travel, Literature, Novels
ratings_count: 11404
places: Mexico City (México City), The United States of America
series: Duluoz Legend
publisher: Perigee Books