![](https://image.librarything.com/pics/fugue21/magnifier-left.png)
![Maggie Cassidy by Jack Kerouac](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/P/0140179062.01._SX180_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg)
Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.
Loading... Maggie Cassidy (original 1959; edition 1993)by Jack Kerouac (Author)
Work InformationMaggie Cassidy by Jack Kerouac (1959)
![]() 1950s (222) No current Talk conversations about this book. ![]() ![]() I'm still not enjoying these early days of Jack Kerouac books as much as I did his life from "On the Road" on. But this one was a little better than the previous ones. It is about Jack's high school life, and his first 'true' love, Maggie. (well, another girl named Pauline might have been 'first', but her name's not on the cover, now is it?) Kerouac really captures the mania of a first love very well, with all of it's quirks, uneasiness, and intense feelings. The other parts of his life in this book, particularly the pieces when he is hanging out with his friends, are not as interesting. Heck, I hardly understood their dialogues at all! (did people really talk like that back then?) I also wasn't interested in all of the minute details of life in Lowell, and those details take up a lot of room in this book! I think if I was from Lowell, or really interested in what life was like pre-WWII in the Massachusetts area, this story would have won me over. But I wasn't, so it didn't. And that ending is quite a stinker. Jack should have stopped at 45 chapters. This was another great book by Kerouac. The autobiographical details that are mixed in this ring of truth and a sense of purity for the development of his main character- and himself. It spells out what it means to have loved, someone's first love, and lost it alongside growing up. Kerouac writes from the heart here, and in a poetic style of prose that is palatable to the reader. I was quite impressed with this- Kerouac did not hold back. Through his efforts, he turned this into something memorable, and accessible, for all readers. 4 stars- well earned! no reviews | add a review
A touching novel of adolescent love set in a New England mill town. Regarded as one of Kerouac's most accessible novels, it captures both the intensity and the ordinariness of growing up in pre-World War II America. No library descriptions found. |
Current DiscussionsNonePopular covers
![]() GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:![]()
|