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Desolation Angels (Duluoz Legend)

by Jack Kerouac, Joyce Johnson (Introduction by)

3.89 of 5 stars 3.89 · rating details · 5,936 ratings · 191 reviews

With the publication of On the Road in 1957, Jack Kerouac became at once the spokesman and hero of the Beat Generation. Along with such visionaries as William S. Burroughs, NealCassady,and Allen Ginsberg, Kerouac changed the face of American literature, igniting a counterculture revolution that even now, decades later, burns brighter than ever in Desolation Angels.

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Paperback, First Riverhead trade paperback edition, 432 pages

Published September 1st 1995 by Riverhead Books (first published 1958)

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Nov 24, 2012 Andy Miller rated it 3 of 5 stars

While I truly loved On the Road, I was pleasantly surprised when I read Dharma Bums and found it to be an even better book. However, I found Desolation Angels somewhat of a disappointment

The book starts with his time as a fire lookout on Desolation Peak in the North Cascade, I've learned that this section of the book was mainly taken from the journals he wrote at the time--much of it deals with his musings on Buddhism and his life-and I found that part to be somewhat flat.More interesting was hi...more While I truly loved On the Road, I was pleasantly surprised when I read Dharma Bums and found it to be an even better book. However, I found Desolation Angels somewhat of a disappointment

The book starts with his time as a fire lookout on Desolation Peak in the North Cascade, I've learned that this section of the book was mainly taken from the journals he wrote at the time--much of it deals with his musings on Buddhism and his life-and I found that part to be somewhat flat.More interesting was his discussion of his actual life on the lookout and the loneliness he clearly felt

The book continues with his reconnection to the beat writers when he returns to San Francisco. While there he tells Ginsburg, Cassidy and Corsi of his plans to take a freight train to Mexico and they laugh; in an example of Kerouac at his best he writes: But the laughter is genuinine, and I console myself with the reminder,embodied in the Tao of my Rememberance "The Sage who provokes laughter is more valuable than a well."

Kerouac does go to Mexico and here we also see Kerouac at his worst, a description of his encounter with a 14 year old prostitute. I'm including this writing, as offensive as it is, to remind us not to over romanticize Kerouac. Kerouac writes "my little girl leads me and starts washing unceremoniously in the squatting position. "Tres pesos" she says sternly, making sure to get her 24 cents before we start. When we do start she's so small you can't find her for at least a minute of probing. Then the rabbits run,like American high school kids running a mile a minute...But she is not particularly interested either. I find myself losing myself in her without one iota of trained responsibility holding me back"

Kerouac describes his next travels to New York and meeting different women, one of whom writes a foreword in the most recent edition. The writing here is again vintage "On the Road" Kerouac continues with his travels to Africa and Europe and this included the following poignant passage when he becomes homesick and wishes only for a box of Wheaties in an American kitchen

Many Americans suddenly sick in foreign lands must get the same childlike yen, like Wolfe suddenly remembering the lonely milkman's bottle clink at dawn in North Carolina as he lies there tormented in an Oxford room, or Hemingway suddenly seeing the autumn leaves of Ann Arbor in a Berlin brothel,Scott Fitz tears coming into his eyes in Spain to think of his father's old shoes in the farmhouse door."

That passage reminds me of the writer that Kerouac could have become if he had continued to evolve. Instead the book ends with his opening a box of the newly published "On the Road" and his reflections of the beat generation and what was hip and was what not, foreshadowing the disillusionment and spell that we all know sadly led to the isolated and bitter end of his life

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May 14, 2009 Joscha rated it 4 of 5 stars

Desolation Angels starts where Kerouac left us at the end of The Dharma Bums. On Desolation Peak. Although the two books kind of flow into each other you will notice that Kerouac has changed. After the thrilling and fervid On The Road he became more quiet and meditative. He still has that excitement for life and experience and that somehow never ending urge to be on the road and hang out with his old Beat buddies but eventually he can't identify with the spirit of the so called Beat Generation a...more

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Jun 23, 2008 J rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: bios-and-memoirs

Of the many Beat writers, Burroughs and Kerouac are the two who I’ve read the most and who’s writing has had the most impact on me. Of the two, I like Burroughs’ writing more but find I identify more with Kerouac’s.

The first Kerouac book I read was On The Road . I was in college and I was in Spokane in the early morning waiting for a bus to take me home to Cheney. I read the entire book waiting for that bus, which tells you I was way into it and that the busses In Spokane were few and far betwee...more Of the many Beat writers, Burroughs and Kerouac are the two who I’ve read the most and who’s writing has had the most impact on me. Of the two, I like Burroughs’ writing more but find I identify more with Kerouac’s.

The first Kerouac book I read was On The Road . I was in college and I was in Spokane in the early morning waiting for a bus to take me home to Cheney. I read the entire book waiting for that bus, which tells you I was way into it and that the busses In Spokane were few and far between.

Having read Burroughs recently, I thought it would be swell to give Kerouac another go. Desolation Angels was at my fingertips so I tackled it. It’s great! His free form, uninterrupted writing turned me off at first, but his language, the overall style of his writing pulled me in. I found myself enjoying the free form stuff more and more each time I encountered it. I found myself, at 34, identifying with thoughts and feelings Kerouac had at 34 (and writing about years later), identifying with who he was. His description of people, the way he conveys their personality so freely and successfully, is marvelous. And his reactions to things around him, good bad or neutral, seem terribly honest and I found myself identifying with that, as well.

The one thing I don’t get is the sexism. There’s a one dimensional and fairly grim view of women in this and other Kerouac books. It’s sad that a “movement” so wrapped up and even fueled by open mindedness and acceptance of new ideas was still so backwards regarding women.

What I like best is Kerouac’s descriptions of his friends, the way he talks about them. You feel the love in his words, the fascination with their characters and personalities. And you can tell he loved the quirks more than anything, that he loved every weirdness, oddity and eccentricity they had. It’s a pleasure to read Kerouac talking about his friends.

In fact, some of my favorites parts of Desolation Angels were when he was talking about hanging out with Burroughs. I could hear Burroughs’ voice saying the things in this book, hear his peculiar tones and inflections.

And this is probably blasphemy but I kept seeing David Cross as Irwin Garden (Allan Ginsberg).

Really a very, very good read.(less)

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Aug 28, 2007 Sarah Crawford rated it 3 of 5 stars

I, like many others, found Desolation Angels after reading On The Road.
If you're expecting this to be an off-shoot of On The Road, you'd be wrong.
This book is a journey into the mind of Kerouac. Some call him genius, some madman, but I don't think you can truly define him in any one catagory.
This book is no easy task. It takes a lot of thinking and a lot of patience to get through, but it's well worth the effort in the end.

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Sep 13, 2011 zxvasdf rated it 3 of 5 stars

It is truly a novel about desolation. First, actually physical solitude, months of it on a cold mountain with nothing but lush nature and his own thoughts for company. Then it is a desolation of the world, where Kerouac tries to find pleasure and meaning in a series of shallow exchanges, until, finally, it is a desolation of the spirit and he becomes a true desolation angel shrinking into the distance.

Kerouac's belief system transforms with his burgeoning sense of ennui and despair of the world...more It is truly a novel about desolation. First, actually physical solitude, months of it on a cold mountain with nothing but lush nature and his own thoughts for company. Then it is a desolation of the world, where Kerouac tries to find pleasure and meaning in a series of shallow exchanges, until, finally, it is a desolation of the spirit and he becomes a true desolation angel shrinking into the distance.

Kerouac's belief system transforms with his burgeoning sense of ennui and despair of the world. On the mountain it's all Zen and sweet and loving the world and being nothing in nothing, and it's all he talks about with Pomeray and Urso back in Frisco. After Urso lends him a cross on a necklace, it's all Kerouac sees is saints here and there, and acute fixation on suffering leaks into the narration. At the end, where's the Zen in all that black funk? What happened to all that fancy talk of angels and saints?

The prose is boisterous and loose but loses steam in the last hundred fifty pages or so and I have to slog through the last fifty until the part about his mother which is nice but a little weird. You can actually see Kerouac's decay of spirit as his prose shrivels up, prosaic. Like concrete hardening. Becoming plain miserable and whiny. I found myself liking Kerouac less and less deeper into the book, but could appreciate his position. No wonder he died the way he did. The world was moving on and he just couldn't keep up. When there was no experience worth writing about, there was nothing. He burned bright and hot, but when there were no more pleasure in living the only way he knew how to live, he went out blazing, an extinguished match hissing a cool blue haze across history.

Despite everything, this is an invaluable resource for those very curious about the Beat Generation. Allen Ginsberg and Peter Orlovsky. The manic Neal Cassady. Burroughs. Corso, my God, this is a great look at manic little Corso who doesn't get too much attention in the other Beat books, who I've only seen on video as an old man in front of a glaring window talking about a dead Beat poet or another.

Kerouac is as honest as he could be, as confused and muddled he becomes; his spontaneous prose, spoken from the mantel chair of memory, still captivates. (less)

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Sep 13, 2010 Laura rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book is the best reason I can think of for anyone ever learning to read. I've spent most of it with my mouth - metaphorically - hanging open, and my heart perpetually glowing and breaking along with Kerouac's various and numerous highs and lows. Can you be in love with someone who died years before you were even a twinkle in the eye of the universe? I think so.

This is not On the Road, and On the Road is nothing by comparison. That is, if there can be any other piece of writing that could e...more

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Jun 26, 2009 Dava B rated it 5 of 5 stars

My favourite Kerouac book so far. If there is a continuum of idealism, which starts from 'On the Road' and on through 'The Dharma Bums', it is at this book (which follows on from 'The Dharma Bums') that the cracks are really beginning to appear in Jack Kerouac's experience.

Yet to put it so simply feels like a crude summing up of what Jack Kerouac was really about. His ability to capture the highs, the lows, the humor and the horror of life is nothing short of inspiring. And who am I, really, to...more

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Barry It certainly gave us sixties children a damn good excuse to push the boundaries. [You should have been there, but as they say, if you rmember it, then...more
Jun 28, 2009 12:51pm

Dava B I wonder whether had I read this book in a more reckless incarnation (or as a 60's kid) it would have spurned me into boundary pushing, more so 'On Th...more
Jun 28, 2009 10:29pm

Nov 02, 2012 David A Johnson rated it 3 of 5 stars

It's very much two different books. The first is the solitude of the mountain, where from what I understand Kerouac only had the Diamond Sutra to read over and over again as he worked to come to grips with the Buddhist idea that we're all nothing, and we're all going to die, and the universe (personified in the mountain Hozomeen) will still be there and not give a shit at all about you coming or going or anything because it's the universe.

It's hard slogging, or was for me, but rewarding.

And then...more

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Oct 17, 2009 Kate B rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: american, cult, beat-generation, modern-classics

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I don't know if I'm outgrowing Kerouac, but I definitely got that feeling when I started this book. There's something lacking in exurberance, like Kerouac's winding down.
Solitude Vs Wildness atop Mt Desolation Kerouac enjoys the peace & solitude but as soon as he's back into the fold of Cassady-Cody, Ginsberg-Irwin, Corso-Raphael, Orlovsky-Simon & Burroughs-Bull; he's soon back to his old hoboing, drunken, womanizing ways (which like his other books makes for some exicitng writing) but...more I don't know if I'm outgrowing Kerouac, but I definitely got that feeling when I started this book. There's something lacking in exurberance, like Kerouac's winding down.
Solitude Vs Wildness atop Mt Desolation Kerouac enjoys the peace & solitude but as soon as he's back into the fold of Cassady-Cody, Ginsberg-Irwin, Corso-Raphael, Orlovsky-Simon & Burroughs-Bull; he's soon back to his old hoboing, drunken, womanizing ways (which like his other books makes for some exicitng writing) but behind it all Memere's premonition 'They'll destroy you...' is painfully apparent.
Kerouac's Christ/Buddha is no match for this kind of life any more and is slowly disintergrating along his non-stop hipster travails, which take him to Mexico, Tangiers, Paris & London, becoming increasingly bored & disillusioned when confronted with the increasing notority of the 'beat generation' becoming known to all American high school kids, making it the latest fad instead of a free way of life.
Also the guy had a serious complex about women: 'Women scheme for men's babies'!!!??. His woman-hatred stemming from his obsessive relationship; revealed in his numerous lover relationships as a terrified little boy & some twisted garden of Eve shit where all women are evil and gonna eat you, leading to the Freudian theory that he was in fact gay. He even suggests at one point that all he wants to do is crawl back into his mother's womb!
It's a big sticking point but it's my only criticism; this book is no different form his other amazing works,& is argurably refreshing in an over PC society but it does suffer from dating: 'Negro'. The only cringe worthy aspect of Kerouac is his ignorance over race, suggesting all poor black people are jolly happy folk.
The only problem with Beat-Lit is the fact that the men are so weak & stupid; their attitude to women is simply degrading: 'I just wanted them to spread their legs.' e.g. if she sleeps with you she's cool, if she's not interested she's a dike or 'square'.
This blatant sexism & ignorant racism i find bizarre along side their relaxed attitude to homosexuality, and really works out that men can do whatever they want.
But this is only part of Beat, and doesn't detract from his amazing stream-of-conciousness writing style, rushing by as fast as the road, carrying us with it.(less)

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Stephen If you look at Kerouac objectively, I think you can come to the conclusion that he suffered from depression. All of the signs are there. He had trauma...more
Oct 19, 2009 04:34am

Kate B 'manic bursts of energy and creativity, followed by withdrawl' very acurate description of depression. The negative reception of the Beats and the eff...more
Oct 19, 2009 01:33pm

Jun 10, 2012 Mark rated it 4 of 5 stars

Desolation Angels is a wide-ranging book, most obviously in the territory it covers, from far Northern Washington to Mexico City to Tangiers with many stops in between. But Kerouac also moves through different feelings about how he has come to see life at his old age of 34. Desolation is certainly running throughout; Kerouac struggles in this book with the question of what meaning or purpose can be found in a world that must end by people who must die. He is by and large depressed and lethargic...more Desolation Angels is a wide-ranging book, most obviously in the territory it covers, from far Northern Washington to Mexico City to Tangiers with many stops in between. But Kerouac also moves through different feelings about how he has come to see life at his old age of 34. Desolation is certainly running throughout; Kerouac struggles in this book with the question of what meaning or purpose can be found in a world that must end by people who must die. He is by and large depressed and lethargic because of this focus on the Void, which he writes he has seen on Desolation Peak during the fire lookout duty with which he opens the book. But Kerouac also writes early in his time down off the mountain, within a week or so and in or just leaving San Francisco, that he should have stayed in that enlightening environment and made use of it, though his description of his actual time there gives the impression of painful boredom and isolation.

There is a tension throughout the book between despair for life's transience and admiration for those who live fully anyway (the Angels, seems to me, though he seems to use the word to encompass all his friends or even everyone). There is also joy when Kerouac manages to be pulled along in living fully himself occasionally. The moments when he sees others insisting on life are powerful in this book, probably because of how successfully his prose immerses the reader in his own doubt or paralysis regarding life. And many do break through: Irwin, Cody, Raphael, Duluoz's mother. It is the sensation of their liveliness truly breaking through that lends these moments their power.

Early in reading this book I felt that Kerouac's writing was priming me to notice those details of daily life we so easily pass by but which bring beauty and wonder to the world - ordinary people truly seen, or wind or sun. Part of this comes from these breakthrough moments, from the content of Desolation Angels, but the rhythm, the abandon, the sounds of the words themselves, their periodic novelty, the writing itself, the form also had a big part in prompting this awareness in me, which strikes me as a great gift of poetry: to jolt a reader into seeing the world anew for a time. Kerouac's prose is rambling and messy and spontaneous (largely), but he has a poetic sensibility that shines through it - a joy in playing with words, associations unexpected and revealing, flashes of eye-opening description.

All that said, I often cringed any time Kerouac was writing about women or sex - his attitudes are troubling and sad - and it is a long book, which was not exactly a hardship but also not entirely positive. It is hard in some ways to keep reading when the overall tone of the book is so down. (Kerouac originally intended Desolation Angels to be two books, and it could have worked that way, although I think it works together too.)

In the end, I enjoyed the book and got a great deal out of it, choosing to take the good and essentially do my best to ignore the bad. It made me want to read The Dharma Bums - which precedes this story and features much of Gary Snyder - as well as the Subterraneans, and to read more Ginsberg and Corso.(less)

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May 16, 2013 Nicholas rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

Essentially two books.The first book takes up 70% of the total and gets more than tedious.The narrative details the authors movements and thoughts as he reintegrates into society after a couple of months on his own.Its basically an expanded diary and unless you're having a Buddhism related religious crisis has little to offer.I found the characters where not well defined enough when first introduced,which caused some confusion,also much of the "action"is superfluous and lacked any meaning for m...more

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Feb 03, 2013 Luigi Lorato rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Questo libro racconta le sensazioni di Kerouac in un periodo di svolta nella sua vita(poco prima dell'uscita di On the road):
Le meditazioni di due mesi in solitaria su una montagna, la voglia di vita alla discesa(forse la parte pi�� bella del libro), il disagio crescente con i suoi Angeli di Desolazione(soprattutto nella seconda parte, in cui a scrivere �� il Kerouac diventato, suo malgrado, il simbolo della vita da beat) e la voglia di cercare la "tranquillit�� in patria" con sua madre
Forse qua...more

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Jul 17, 2012 Kickuntilitbreaks rated it 4 of 5 stars

Certainly not the excitable, lust-for-life Kerouac of On The Road and his earlier days, but still a very recognizably Kerouacian stream of thought. Originally a double novel, the first section is based on his time spent on fire watch upon Desolation Peak and the metaphysical rambles that run through the mind during 60+ days of isolation and solitude. The following section is then Jack's stories of returning to the world and his friends after his brush with the Void. In this section, in this end-...more

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Sep 06, 2012 Andrew rated it 5 of 5 stars

Boy, I really enjoyed this book, even if not a great work of art. For me reading later Kerouac is like a great conversation with a really thoughtful and interesting, if somewhat mixed-up friend. I bought this for .50 at the Friends of Library Booksale, lost it for about two months, and spent many pleasurable hours on my front porch reading the almost 400 pages this spring, summer and fall. I'm feeling kind of melancholy that I'm finished and don't have Jack to visit with anymore. Goodbye Jack. M...more

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Aug 07, 2010 Adam rated it 4 of 5 stars

A great tale of Jack's life in the northwest. I did a double take on the paragraph or maybe it was just a sentence (as that's all that place deserves) when he mentions going through Everett Washington which was just 5 miles from where I grew up. Even though he seems pained to leave the Northwest and quickly return to California I still get excited to know he once found life experience and chose to write about it up here. His time as a fire watcher on the mountain is truly epic and he makes you w...more

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Apr 10, 2013 Kat added it

I read this book once in High School when I first discovered Kerouac. Lately I've been on a "classics" kick, because I can't get into a lot of the books out there now. So I began re-reading Kerouac, starting with Big Sur. Best decision I made; shortly after starting this novel, I had a horrible wave of depression from my PTSD wash over me- and this was one of the few things I looked forward to doing everyday. His haunted writing in this novel reminds me of the Russian greats: Dostoyevsky, Tolsto...more

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May 26, 2013 Robert Mitchell rated it 4 of 5 stars

Desolation Angels is heaven and hell and the world and America and the Void and his Mom. Kerouac/Duluoz is a despicable, noble, earnest, loving, whiny, brilliant, loyal, weak, irreplaceable, insane jazz poet. As a preamble, listen to Bob Dylan’s Desolation Row and realize how he creates surprisingly linear beauty tangentially, and then crank up the random-o-meter one hundred times for Kerouac. One thousand preliminarily random images turn into a masterful Pointillist painting in prose. Bebop imp...more

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Jan 26, 2012 Annina rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

Desolationin enkelit (1965) on yksi Kerouackin pääteoksista, aikaisemmin julkaistujen Matkalla ja Dharmapummit-teosten lisäksi. Kuten kirjan takakannessa sanotaan, teosta pidetään Kerouackin "uskonnollisimpana" teoksena. Neljään osaan jaettu kirja sijoittuu vuodelle 1957, Matkalla-romaanin julkaisuaikoihin. 1950-luvun lopulla alkoi kulttuurivallankumous, jonka tienraivaajina mm. Kerouack, Ginsberg ja Burroughs toimivat.

Itse pidin kirjasta kovin. Kirja alkaa Kerouackin alter egon Jack Dulouz:n k...more Desolationin enkelit (1965) on yksi Kerouackin pääteoksista, aikaisemmin julkaistujen Matkalla ja Dharmapummit-teosten lisäksi. Kuten kirjan takakannessa sanotaan, teosta pidetään Kerouackin "uskonnollisimpana" teoksena. Neljään osaan jaettu kirja sijoittuu vuodelle 1957, Matkalla-romaanin julkaisuaikoihin. 1950-luvun lopulla alkoi kulttuurivallankumous, jonka tienraivaajina mm. Kerouack, Ginsberg ja Burroughs toimivat.

Itse pidin kirjasta kovin. Kirja alkaa Kerouackin alter egon Jack Dulouz:n kahden kuukauden kestäneen yksinäisyyden kuvailusta Desolation Peakilla. Tyypillistä beat-aikakauden tajunnanvirtaa ja assosiaatioita, sekä kuvailuja täynnä oleva teksti vaatii sopivan keskittynyttä ja rauhallista mielentilaa, jotta siitä saa irti tarpeellisen. Muuten saa huomata lukeneensa useita sivuja muistamatta niistä mitään.
Loput osat kirjasta kertovat Desolation Peakista poistumista seuraavista tapahtumista. Paluu New Yorkiin, ystävien tapaamista, matkustusta ja vaeltelua Meksikoon ja Marokon kautta Pariisiin ja Lontooseen.

Moni on kertonut pettyneensä luettuaan Desolationin enkelit Kerouackin muiden kirjojen jälkeen. En ihmettele, sillä Desolationin enkeleistä kuvastuu jotain syvällä olevaa tyhjyyttä ja etsinnästä luovuttamista. Sisäisiin ristiriitoihin ei löydy ratkaisua ja idealismi rakoilee. Heränneen vastakulttuurin teennäisyys ja naiivi innostuminen, jota Kerouack itse on aikaisemmin kokenut ja ollut viemään suurempaan mittakaavaan, kyllästyttää ja paljastaa tarkoituksettomuutensa. Vastenmielisyydestään ja kyllästymisestään huolimatta Kerouack huomaa löytävänsä itsensä yhä uudelleen tästä porukasta ja vanhoista toimintamalleistaan. Aikaisemmin yhteiskunnallisella tasolla ollut eristäytyneisyyden tunne ylettyy nyt yksilötasolle ja kaikkiin ihmisiin.
Vanhojen hylättyjen arvojen tilalle uudeksi otetut vastakkaiset arvot, eivät välttämättä täytä sitä tyhjiötä minkä ihminen sisältään löytää.

Kirja on silti aito ja hyvin kirjoitettu. Siinä missä aikaisemmat kirjat ovat uskontoa ja sisäisiä ristiriitoja kuvatessaan sisältäneet innostuneisuutta ja tietynlaista toiveikkuutta, jättää aika nämä tunteet jälkeensä. Tilalle jää vain riisuttu tyhjyys ja kuoleman vääjäämätön odotus.

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Nov 05, 2011 Nick H rated it 4 of 5 stars

Ah, Jack. You always have a way with words. Don't come to Desolation Angels looking for the same zest for life that Jack gives us in On the Road...at least not past the first 100 pages. These are the thoughts, opinions, experiences, and conflicts (mostly internal) going on in an older man. Filled with spiritual confusion and doubt as to our purpose on this planet, he talks a lot about the condition of man based off of the things he sees and documents here. A lot of the great characters of the "B...more

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Jan 02, 2013 Mel rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 20th-century-fiction, beat

This book makes a great sequel to the dharma bums, even though it was actually written first. It starts with Kerouac's incredible isolation at the top of the Mountain and slowly sees him re-emerging into his crazy life, but never being able to get over the feeling of isolation and depression that he felt on the mountain top. My favorite part of this was when he was slowly returning to the world. I think this was partly because I was familiar with the places he was visiting. It was amusing to hea...more

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Sep 19, 2011 Tom O’Connell rated it 3 of 5 stars

*Three and a half, where possible.

I read 'On The Road', 'Dharma Bums', 'The Sub[par]teraneans' and 'Big Sur' in my late teen years, and don't quite know how or why 'Desolations Angels' eluded me for so long. It's definitely compulsory reading for anyone who, like me, has invested this much time in Kerouac's journey.

I usually lap up Kerouac's style but here I found things needlessly excessive, and really had to plough through some sections on sheer determination. I'm not sure if the problem is th...more *Three and a half, where possible.

I read 'On The Road', 'Dharma Bums', 'The Sub[par]teraneans' and 'Big Sur' in my late teen years, and don't quite know how or why 'Desolations Angels' eluded me for so long. It's definitely compulsory reading for anyone who, like me, has invested this much time in Kerouac's journey.

I usually lap up Kerouac's style but here I found things needlessly excessive, and really had to plough through some sections on sheer determination. I'm not sure if the problem is that I've outgrown all this beatific hoo-hah, or that 'Desolation Angels' *specifically* doesn't soar with the same exuberance as his previous work. It's hard to say, really. It's certainly a more sombre, introspective novel – one that deals in great length with Kerouac's waning belief in organised religion (here he's all about the hopelessness of the 'Void'; an ideology I couldn't really identify with).

'Desolation Angels' opens with some very esoteric journal scribbles about Jack's isolated period as the lookout of Desolation Peak. If 'Big Sur' showcased Kerouac's mental deterioration, then 'Desolation Angels' provides the first seeds of unease. Jack's weary contempt for life is all too apparent. He teeters in and out of his depression, coveting enlightenment above all things (even his own sanity).

To be honest, this melancholic tone (and this MUCH of it) was hard to stomach. Sure, there were glimpses of the Kerouac we know and love (his exuberant San Francisco reunion with the gang is certainly tonnes of fun), but is subsidiary to his hopeless longing (equating his mother to sainthood is endearing, but more a desperate grasp for life's significance). I mean, it's not the sort of complaint one can fairly level at a work of nonfiction, but it was markedly 'less fun' to read about than, say, the balls-out fun of 'On The Road' or the beautifully captured mountain climb in 'Dharma Bums'.

I guess them's the breaks, but I'll always have a soft spot for Kerouac. He's an integral part of my youth, and an important initiation for me and literature.(less)

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Apr 07, 2010 Ruth rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: people under forty years old.

I have read this book a couple of times before. I started it seeking location of Olivia's quote. I still have not found that quote, but kept reading the book.

I have read many of Keouac's books. He was, at one time right up with Ernest Hemingway in my major arcana. But, Jack K., became too depressing for me. The sadness and depression became unbearable. I just could not handle all that misery on top of his personal story. His life was just as miserable and hopeless and the loops of despair that a...more I have read this book a couple of times before. I started it seeking location of Olivia's quote. I still have not found that quote, but kept reading the book.

I have read many of Keouac's books. He was, at one time right up with Ernest Hemingway in my major arcana. But, Jack K., became too depressing for me. The sadness and depression became unbearable. I just could not handle all that misery on top of his personal story. His life was just as miserable and hopeless and the loops of despair that at one time were poetic and brimming with passion became sad yelps of day by day unpeaceful.
So I am wary of reading this book, but so far I have managed. The first part is the 40 days as a fire watcher on the mountain in Washington State to clear his head.
Now he is back in San Fran and there are some incredible paragrpahps about the streets of the city, the names of the places, the views. He is gorging on Chinese Food (who wouldn't) and getting re-adjusted to civilization.
I still have not found Olivia's quote about washing dishes, and am racking my mind to find it in other book. Dharma Bums?

I swear I will stop reading it if it makes me blue.

Well old Jack has his appeal, and for a few days I continued reading his wonderful descriptions. As expected, the sadness established itself. Poor, poor, poor Jack he remembers his boyhood with such nostalgia. He is sorrowful because of the memories and the now and he has regrets about his future already. His hardworking mother breaks his heart. Does he provide for her, no he is more of a sponge with occasional contributions...So in the end, I get tired of poor jack.

I am not able to speak the language of mental illness diagnoses, but he is clearly a damaged soul.

Anyway, I even dipped into the Dharma bums to see if I could scare up the quote, but had no luck.

Then, this morning, driving to work, I said to myself: I don't know why, I'm feeling kind of depressed. I had had a good morning, if you get my drift, and was heading for a busy day with no fears or tears in sight. And I said KEROUAC aha. Exact same thing happened when I listened to "On the Road"--the poignant, heart wrenching pages about America and modern life--depressing and meaningless and hard to manage.

So, am done w/ this book for a while. Review concluded.(less)

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Jan 29, 2011 Harish Venkatesan rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

I find this to be Kerouac's most complete work. It ranges the whole gamut of human emotion, from complete ecstasy at living the beat life, to utter despair when contemplating the horror and ultimate meaningless of worldly existence or maya... while all of Kerouac's work is honest, I get a sense that he was really trying to explain himself in this book, in what he called a quiet period between the splendor of the carefree On the Road and Dharma Bums days, to the later imprisonment-like fame that...more I find this to be Kerouac's most complete work. It ranges the whole gamut of human emotion, from complete ecstasy at living the beat life, to utter despair when contemplating the horror and ultimate meaningless of worldly existence or maya... while all of Kerouac's work is honest, I get a sense that he was really trying to explain himself in this book, in what he called a quiet period between the splendor of the carefree On the Road and Dharma Bums days, to the later imprisonment-like fame that accompanies success. What emerges is a pretty telling portrait of Kerouac's way of looking at the world. While caught up in "digging" the wonder of everything around him, I think he ultimately senses that nothing, inherently, has a point... it's all a Void, and the sense of this, without any further answers, can only lead to ultimate despair. You get a foreboding sense of things to come in the Big Sur days-- he even makes a mention of it towards the end of the book, trying to test the limits of what he can do just to do it, because why not? What's the point? "I later had adventures in Big Sur down there that were really horrible and only as horrible as you get when you get older and your last moment impels you to test all, to go mad, just to see what the Void'll do".

Lyrically, Kerouac strikes his usual notes, reaching beautifully spontaneous heights in the middle of the novel, during his explanation of the adventures his Beat friends and he have-- betting on races with Cody (Neal Cassidy) and Raphael, digging San Francisco with Allen Ginsberg and co., doping up in Mexico... what's most interesting about this book, though, is the image he paints during the beginning and end. At the start, he's still up in "Desolation Peak", Mount Hozomeen, which is where Dharma Bums trails off. The writing here is disjointed and often confusing, and rather difficult to get through, but seems to reflect his state of mind at the time. That's what I love about Kerouac- his writing is brutally honest, and he writes with such fullness of being with his spontaneous style that blurs the line between prose and poetry, that you're drawn in to what he says and completely feel what he's trying to express. Towards the end of the book, a feeling of worry/panic/melancholy sets in, as he resigns himself to his fate and to Life's fate of meaninglessness-- haunting.

I have a habit of dog-earing books and underlining meaningful quotes to look to. I ultimately decided to stop doing that for this book, because it merits a complete re-read, keeping in mind the crucial role this novel plays in understanding the beautiful Duluoz saga.(less)

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Feb 17, 2009 David rated it 3 of 5 stars

If you’re looking for something similar to On The Road or The Dharma Bums from Kerouac, I would advise you not to read this book. It is much more moody and inside Kerouac’s mind. Perhaps it’s Kerouac’s Naked Lunch, in a way. In Desolation Angels, Kerouac survives two months on a mountaing, listens to jazz with friends, smokes a lot of opium (even tries peyote), travels with his mom, and seems to sink deeper into alcoholism, which eventually ruined him.

It takes a lot of effort to read this book....more

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Dec 17, 2008 Alan Scott rated it 4 of 5 stars

ON THE ROAD...with Mom

This book may come as a real shock to those whom have a preconcieved notion about what the "Beats" were all about, and it may also be a shock for those more familiar with the jubilant ecstatic life affirmations of On The Road or even The Dharma Bums.

In this book Jack goes on the road (with Mom), has sex with a fourteen year old mexican prostitute, meets up with a Neal (Cody) whom is a far fly from his On the Road days and is tied down with a wife + three kids and a job,...more
ON THE ROAD...with Mom

This book may come as a real shock to those whom have a preconcieved notion about what the "Beats" were all about, and it may also be a shock for those more familiar with the jubilant ecstatic life affirmations of On The Road or even The Dharma Bums.

In this book Jack goes on the road (with Mom), has sex with a fourteen year old mexican prostitute, meets up with a Neal (Cody) whom is a far fly from his On the Road days and is tied down with a wife + three kids and a job, meets Salidore Dali + William Carlos WIlliams + Carl Sandburg, gets his book published, is constantly compulsively depressed, has a paradigmatic consciousness flip after a huge dose of opium, meets up with junkie Burroughs in Tangiers (whom is lovelorn over Ginsburg), and kicks Buddhism down a notch for a more hardcore return to Christianity.

As others have noted, this book follows directly after the Dharma Bums and that book should be read first. What follows is Jack's experiences on the mountain which, contrary to his expectations in Dharma Bums, is almost like a nightmare prison sentence.

After he leaves the mountain, we enter into the first half of the book (his return to California), which is a bit ponderous and slow (but never boring). We are treated to a tortureous description of his day of betting at a race track with Neal and Corso.

The book picks up speed bigtime when he goes back on the road and then travels internationally.

His prose is brilliant and poetic and his observations remarkable and I think this book is brilliant; but it is also tremendously sad, deeply frusterated and lost, spiritually drained and destitute, and there is little ecstacy to be had. By the end of the book, and with the return of his compulsive obsession with Christianity, one can really sense the beginning of his psychosis and alcoholism and mommy obsession which would spell his death by age fourty seven.

I'm not sure to whom this book should be recommended- for I'm not sure whom would care about this descent of an icon for joy. It should definetly be read by those whom have read On the Road and the Dharma Bums, but also by those whom think that the counter cultural movements were all done by joy seeking thrill addicts without a care in the world. After reading this book, it would seem that caring is something that was not is short supply amongst these bands of fellow travelers on the way.

Also, those whom felt that the beats were all leftist radicals, anarchists and communists would be very suprised to read in this book that Jack almost seems like a rightist in many regards. He reads a book on the atrocities of communism on the mountain, he constantly is remarking about totalitarian regimes (in particular- Russia), brings up Mao (at a time when some on the left felt he may have been a hero and the crimes against "reactionaries" hadn't yet come into light) and Castro (while others went off to visit Cuba jack said "I'm not concerned with the Cuban Revolution, I'm concerned with the American Revolution.") and even Zapata is discussed in negative diatribes. He was also a fan of Ike. He spends far more time bitching about leftist than he does about rightists. He also has some special scorn put aside for the common hipster, the mass of "beats" whom came after.

Very moving, sad, beautiful, profound, funny, poetic- a treasure from a real man at the start of his turn into a caricature by the mass media. By the end, when he drags his mother to california and he doesn't have hardly a nickel, he truely does seem like a little boy lost, crushed still by the death of his brother Gerard and his father whom he found, crushed by all the love lost, by all the dreams evaporated.

Evey place he goes, he believes that happiness may lie at the next stop- but once he gets there, there is only sadness once again. At first he wants to return to the mountain on which he'd felt so trapped, but by the end of the book, he just wants to return to the womb. (less)

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Mar 07, 2009 Timothy rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Folks who are already into Kerouac

This is a very fragmented book. I have to admit that Part 1, "Desolation on the Mountain," was the most difficult to get into. There are probably multiple reasons for that, including Kerouac's sometimes obscure allusions to Buddhist thought, and maybe also Kerouac's effort to describe an experience that ultimately only he could have understood. But the narrative becomes more interesting--and also much more poignant--when Kerouac's protagonist descends the mountain and tries to reconnect with fri...more

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May 16, 2011 Carlos rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2008

I had some concerns when I started this book. Concerns such as, "Am I too old for Kerouac? Is all this poet-hipster adventuring sort of pretentious?" So I was surprised by the deep current of melancholy that runs through the book. Jack Duluoz (Kerouac's alter-ego) certainly has his share of adventures in the poet-artist scene, but there's also a real sense of the madness and precariousness of the scene.

The story starts of with Duluoz' time spent as a fire lookout in the Skagit Valley national pa...more

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May 23, 2009 Brian Fanelli rated it 4 of 5 stars

All of the usual Beat characters that compose Kerouac's books are in Desolation Angels. The novel begins with Kerouac's autobiographical character Jack Duluoz on top of Desolation Peak and eventually coming down from the mountain and reuniting with all of his writer friends. What makes the novel somewhat unique is that the Beat movement begins to grab the attention of the media. So, you can see how some of its primary figures deal with the fame.

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Jul 31, 2009 John-Thomas rated it 5 of 5 stars

Quite simply the best book I've ever read. This book represents Jack at the pinnacle of both his literary and spiritual heights, which to me is no coincidence that they coincide. These two seemingly separate endeavors were in fact one pursuit in a life dedicated to searching for the key to writing in the Zen practice of living, that is, as "meditation in action." This is that idea encapsulated. Enjoy!!

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Feb 05, 2009 Kristin rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: beat

This started out ok and then the second half got a little boring. The lesser-known titles in Kerouac's work seem to remain that way for a reason. Too much overlap between this and other stuff he wrote. The beginning section when he's a fireman lookout is good. Very meditative. The second section is too much rehash from previous works.

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About Jack Kerouac

Jack Kerouac was an American novelist, writer, poet, and artist. He is perhaps the best known of a group of writers and friends who came to be known as the Beat Generation, a term he himself created.

Kerouac's work was popular, but received little critical acclaim during his lifetime. Today, he is considered an important and influential writer who inspired others, including Tom Robbins, Lester Bang...more

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Quotes from Desolation Angels

“I'm right there, swimming the river of hardships but I know how to swim...” — 34 people liked it

“Sometimes during the night I'd look at my poor sleeping mother cruelly crucified there in the American night because of no-money, no-hope-of-money, no family, no nothing, just myself the stupid son of plans all of them compacted of eventual darkness. God how right Hemingway was when he said there was no remedy for life - and to think that negative little paper-shuffling prissies should write condescending obituaries about a man who told the truth, nay who drew breath in pain to tell a tale like that! ... No remedy but in my mind I raise a fist to High Heaven promising that I shall bull whip the first bastard who makes fun of human hopelessness anyway - I know it's ridiculous to pray to my father that hunk of dung in a grave yet I pray to him anyway, what else shall I do? sneer? shuffle paper on a desk and burp rationality? Ah thank God for all the Rationalists the worms and vermin got. Thank God for all the hate mongering political pamphleteers with no left or right to yell about in the Grave of Space. I say that we shall all be reborn with the Only One, and that's what makes me go on, and my mother too. She has her rosary in the bus, don't deny her that, that's her way of stating the fact. If there can't be love among men let there be love at least between men and God. Human courage is an opiate but opiates are human too. If God is an opiate so am I. Thefore eat me. Eat the night, the long desolate American between Sanford and Shlamford and Blamford and Crapford, eat the hematodes that hang parasitically from dreary southern trees, eat the blood in the ground, the dead Indians, the dead pioneers, the dead Fords and Pontiacs, the dead Mississippis, the dead arms of forlorn hopelessness washing underneath - Who are men, that they can insult men? Who are these people who wear pants and dresses and sneer? What am I talking about? I'm talking about human helplessness and unbelievable loneliness in the darkness of birth and death and asking 'What is there to laugh about in that?' 'How can you be clever in a meatgrinder?' 'Who makes fun of misery?' There's my mother a hunk of flesh that didn't ask to be born, sleeping restlessly, dreaming hopefully, beside her son who also didn't ask to be born, thinking desperately, praying hopelessly, in a bouncing earthly vehicle going from nowhere to nowhere, all in the night, worst of all for that matter all in noonday glare of bestial Gulf Coast roads - Where is the rock that will sustain us? Why are we here? What kind of crazy college would feature a seminar where people talk about hopelessness, forever?” — 9 people liked it

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Desolation Angels (Duluoz Legend)

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