Atop an Underwood: Early Stories and Other Writings
by Jack Kerouac 
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An anthology of early stories by the poet of the Beat generation. Topics range from his time in Columbia University, from which he was expelled, to an excerpt from a novel which is based on his service in the merchant marine.Tags
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I really like Kerouac, but I think you have to really, REALLY like him to totally enjoy this collection. It has so many pieces of his writing that it is overwhelming, and not many of them are really that good. Taken from a perspective of watching a writer develop and seeing the themes that run through his work, it is an interesting read. Taken for the enjoyment of reading, not so much.
Not all of it is a snooze. I really liked Chapter One from “Football Novella”! And I totally felt him, especially his dismay, in “The Birth of a Socialist”! (“Hundreds of unquestioning fools who get up at five in the morning and rush to a huge, vibrating asylum.”) His list in "The Romanticist" really resonated with me too! I also liked the show more samples from "The Sea is My Brother", a book I've already read, and enjoyed, before opening this one. So it wasn't a waste of time, but I don't know that I would personally consider it the first book of the Duluoz Legend Series. It is what the book cover says that it is - "Early Stories and Other Writings". Not more, not less. show less
Not all of it is a snooze. I really liked Chapter One from “Football Novella”! And I totally felt him, especially his dismay, in “The Birth of a Socialist”! (“Hundreds of unquestioning fools who get up at five in the morning and rush to a huge, vibrating asylum.”) His list in "The Romanticist" really resonated with me too! I also liked the show more samples from "The Sea is My Brother", a book I've already read, and enjoyed, before opening this one. So it wasn't a waste of time, but I don't know that I would personally consider it the first book of the Duluoz Legend Series. It is what the book cover says that it is - "Early Stories and Other Writings". Not more, not less. show less
i heart jack kerouac 4 life
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213+ Works 68,442 Members
Jack Kerouac was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1922. His first novel, The Town and the City, was published in 1950. He considered all of his "true story novels," including On the Road, to be chapters of "one vast book," his autobiographical Legend of Duluoz. He died in St. Petersburg, Florida, in 1969 at the age of forty-seven. (Publisher show more Provided) show less
Jack Kerouac has a Legacy Library. Legacy libraries are the personal libraries of famous readers, entered by LibraryThing members from the Legacy Libraries group.
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- Members
- 353
- Popularity
- 88,749
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (3.77)
- Languages
- English, Italian
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 7
- ASINs
- 3
