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6th out of 19 books
—
54 voters
The Town and the City (Duluoz Legend)
by
Jack Kerouac
In this compelling first novel, Kerouac draws on his New England mill-town boyhood to create the world of George and Marguerite Martin and their eight children, each endowed with an energy and a vision of life.
--This text refers to the Paperback edition.
--This text refers to the Paperback edition.
499 pages
Published
February 3rd 2000
by Penguin Classics
(first published 1950)
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This was my first book I read of Kerouac. It was his only novel before he descended into his free verse drivel. I have only read this book once but I keep wanting to give it another read. I really liked it the first time I read it. It starts off with the family that lives in the country and follows all the kids for a few years as they go out into the world. They each grow differently despite similar origins. I thought a number of the characters were very interesting. If I was to recommend 1 Ker...more
A favorite of mine that I re-read every year during autumn. A wonderful, sad elegy to an America long since gone. Definitely, the most traditional of all Kerouac's novels. You can see (read?) the influence of Thomas Wolfe, which annoyed Kerouac. It's a great precursor to "On The Road", even ending with "Peter Martin" getting ready to hitchhike across the country. For me, the Thanksgiving football bit (which closes the first major section of the novel) is one of the best parts. Kerouac does a gre...more
A unique book in Kerouac's canon, The Town and the City is ultimately a rewarding read. Perhaps more accessable to your standard reader, it flows much more conventionally than his other, more stylistic novels.
It follows the ups and downs of the traditonally American (and somewhat cliched) Martin family, with a particular focus on the sons Peter, Francis and Joe. The narrative and setting are not particularly original; the early portions set in the town of Galloway largely echo much of early 20t...more
It follows the ups and downs of the traditonally American (and somewhat cliched) Martin family, with a particular focus on the sons Peter, Francis and Joe. The narrative and setting are not particularly original; the early portions set in the town of Galloway largely echo much of early 20t...more
I was surprised by this book. I didn't read it for a long time. I won't say the obvious things about it. Many said unkind things about it. Compared it mostly to another writer, in a disparaging way that I find prejudicial, and interesting for that. I didn't read it until recently, even though I've read his other works avidly and some of them repeatedly since I was a teenager. I re-read work very sparingly. There is a lot of good wrting out there waiting to be read. Anyway, I decided to read this...more
In what I think I may consider to be Jack Kerouac's best work (indeed), we get a novel that transcends the Beat nomadic zeitgeist of a generation in favor of a very tender, very American, portrait of a bucolic American family as it morphs, changes, collapses, and triumphs (in not that order) over the years.
I was refreshed by this novel page after page, enthused at the first turnings, in love with Kerouac's prose style, which is so flawless and tender. (Though seriously, the word "sad" appeared i...more
I was refreshed by this novel page after page, enthused at the first turnings, in love with Kerouac's prose style, which is so flawless and tender. (Though seriously, the word "sad" appeared i...more
(7.6.12) More Kerouac! Almost finished Jack's Book and bought this and On the Road at the U bookstore while I was waiting for the car to be fixed. (7.17.12) Mmm. I see I never listed this one as "currently reading". Well I finished it last night, and it is perfectly dreadful. Perversely it is fascinating and really rather enjoyable as a direct consequence. This is the young Kerouac attempting traditional prose and structure, and doing it really badly. What is fascinating is how highly thought of...more
I was not actually aware that this novel's characters were based on real life figures of the Beat generation until AFTER reading it. That kind of put a different light on it to me. While reading it unaware of the real idenitity of the characters, I was more impressed with his characterization of the difference's between the town and country, the effects of WW2 on everyone and the apparent poverty alongside great wealth in New York. Many of the characters in NY like Leon Levinsky and Will Denniso...more
So this is one of the last Kerouac novels I haven't read. I got a lovely old paperback version but was putting off reading it for awhile. I was a bit worried that it would be too normal a novel written before he developed his style. But I totally still loved it. It was such a great book, started so normal American life of the 30s and 40s a family in a small town with their kids, but then before the end people were shooting up and their were books about gay people and murders and it was just bril...more
Despite reading this many years ago, this novel has stood out in my mind as one of Kerouac's best. It's almost certainly his most underated as the author himself later disowned the lyrical Wolfean narrative style in which it was written. In many ways it is a far more pleasing read than his better known 'spontaneous prose' style of On The Road and his other later works. This story has a real charm and beauty of its own, and brings to life the 1930s of Kerouac's childhood in New England.
Full of c...more
Full of c...more
This book allows us a glimpse into Kerouac’s juvenile soul. We get to see a very different Kerouac here—a young Kerouac in awe of everything around him; a confused, brooding Kerouac baring his young soul's agonies and delights in a way we’ll never see him do again.
This somewhat autobiographical book follows the journey of the Martin family as they make different transitions—transition from simple childhood to chaotic, war stricken adult years; transition from small-town life rich in old time ch...more
This somewhat autobiographical book follows the journey of the Martin family as they make different transitions—transition from simple childhood to chaotic, war stricken adult years; transition from small-town life rich in old time ch...more
Jack Kerouac's 'On The Road' is usually discussed as a massive stylistic break from his debut, but what's striking about 'The Town And The City' in retrospect is how much of the free-flowing style of his spontaneous prose is actually present here. The narrative follows the fortunes of a family in a thinly fictionalised version of Kerouac's home town of Lowell. There is much here that is autobiographical, most obviously in the child who grows into a college football star and in the descriptions o...more
An amazing book, though very different from later Kerouac. Moments of cutting clarity laced through a sea of vague emotional upheaval. Hard to formulate in words since there's little plot, but insightful of the range of human feeling and need.
The beginning is chock full of beautiful rich prose and descriptions of a picturesque, small, New England town and a large jovial family that inhabits it. However, as the children of the family as well as the two parents begin to grow older, the once innocent and wholesome plot delves into the uncertainty and depression of adulthood in the ever changing modern world which serves as a stark juxtaposition to New England family life of yesteryear.
Although most of this book definitely did not come...more
Although most of this book definitely did not come...more
Overall The Town and The City is worth the praise that it receives though I'm surprised that many Kerouac fans claim it to be their favorite when compared to his other works. What I enjoyed the most was were the moments where Kerouac's writing in the nevel exists somewhere between the style he would become famous for and what was clearly the heavy Thomas Wolfe influence he was under at the time of writing this. Those were the moments when I felt the energy in the writing that makes me love On th...more
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This book floored me, I loved it. This story is jack Kerouac writing as Thomas Wolfe but emerging as Jack Kerouac. Genius! One of his greatest works! Many people dislike Kerouac because they hate or can't relate to his characters. Some people have a hard time reading his free form, Beat, Jazz, style of writing. But that's just all surface material, and that's the point. Between the lines of text and behind his characters are people just like you and me, each with their own complex story. Love, h...more
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Kerouac's first novel is an ambitious project following a family from a small town and how they grow up before finally moving to the city. This book differs greatly from his other novels as it follows a more traditional form. Like his other books, themes of loneliness and adventure dominate the narrative. I feel that Kerouac might have bit off a more than he could chew as the number of characters is numerous and the seperate plots while following each character can get confusing. I felt I was ab...more
Perhaps one of my favorite Kerouac novels...perhaps one of my favorite novels period. I always pick up his writing due to some insatiable need for clarity and understanding. Kerouac can write about anything and capture such an incredible shared human experience within his pages, something that is even more apparent because he writes about the things that are burning in his mind and heart. He writes about them all in such a way that you ache with his aches, and your mind becomes his in an altoget...more
Kerouac's first novel. Not that great, I mean its decent, but when you know about the good stuff which is to follow it just doesn't stack up. Conventional prose, cliched plotting (gasp! the city is dark and decadent and the town is full of nostalgia and good country people)....he was trying to be a Published Author at this point. I have plenty of sympathy for him for that but still its not that great overall as a reading experience.
Fun fact: it was first published under the name "John Kerouac",...more
I'll leave my progress reviews if they fit. I'm done now, and I'd have to say it's pretty amazing. It proves Kerouac could have written in any style he wanted to. It's an amazing, thorough, engrossing novel about a family that collapses as it moves to New York. It's amazing in that it runs contrary to everything Kerouac embraces in his later novels. He mourns the breakup of the family, its misguided move to the big city. At the same time it does echo Kerouac's lifelong preoccupation with making...more
This is my favorite Kerouac novel, by far. It's the story of a large Massachusetts family during the 1930s and 1940s, beautifully crafted and beautifully written. The final section of the book, comprising a mere seven paragraphs, is one of the most moving and glorious passages I've ever read.
Five stars just doesn't make it for this book. Ten stars, maybe one hundred stars, maybe more!
And one more thing: This is the Kerouac novel that I would recommend to anyone who is put off by the slapdash q...more
Five stars just doesn't make it for this book. Ten stars, maybe one hundred stars, maybe more!
And one more thing: This is the Kerouac novel that I would recommend to anyone who is put off by the slapdash q...more
It took some time to get into this book. Well, maybe it just took me some time to figure out what it was about... It reads like a collection of snapshots for the longest time. The descriptions are great! Kerouac really catches the essence of a physical location and conveys the mood that it embodies. I love his description of dolphins "with their Mona Lisa smiles." This book is full of poetic passages and, finally, at the end, I discovered that it has a real message about modernity and a lost gen...more
I thoroughly enjoyed this epic story of the Martin's lives over the decades. I don't think I've ever read a book that has so inspired in me the will to jump on the next plane to America so I can have these experiences myself. It truly is the Great American Novel. The descriptions of characters and places are vividly portrayed and the story has all you could hope for in a great novel: it's moving, irritating, amusing, heart-breaking.[return][return]I had a little trouble identifying with any of t...more
Kerouac's THE TOWN AND THE CITY is, in my opinion, his finest work. ON THE ROAD and others are classic beat generation period pieces but THE TOWN AND THE CITY is a family saga and the book in which Kerouac best builds a story for the reader (the lengthy saga of the Martin family and their disintegration) *and* delivers a philosophical message about society and family.
As the story progresses I remember it dragging a bit (I read it close to fifteen years ago) but overall it was a memorable read.
As the story progresses I remember it dragging a bit (I read it close to fifteen years ago) but overall it was a memorable read.
The Town and the City is Jack Kerouac’s first novel and it can truly be described as a great start. The portrayals of characters and places are brilliantly described and the story has all you could hope for in a great novel: it's touching, infuriating, entertaining and heart-wrenching all at once. The Town and the City is written in a more conservative mode than Kerouac’s later works. However, you can start to see his distinctive style coming out in this book.
5 Stars
5 Stars
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I give this book 4 stars based solely on the astonishing latter half which reveals the deeper Kerouac soul that became iconic in his later novels. This is his first full novel when he attempted a Fitzgerald-style Great American Novel, an epic tale of family life in contemporary America. The first half I find is a little hard to read, a slow start, but around halfway is a roller coaster of everything we love about Kerouac and fiction as a genre.
This is an amazing novel! I read it after reading a lot of other works by Kerouac and was just blown away by how dissimilar it is from his other writing. It reads like a "conventional" novel. Time moves along in a linear way but there are hints of the influence of Thomas Wolfe's departure from conventional narrative technique in Look Homeward Angel. Reading this novel thoroughly enriched my appreciation of Jack Kerouac's writing.
Rich, full of compassion and insight from a writer so young. It's like seeing the ghost of what became 'On The Road.' I cried at the end, his descriptions of his father's death -- and what death means to all of us -- were that moving. (This book is written all over again as his last book, 'Vanity of Duluoz'. For fans, the pairing is a fascinating read, each illuminating and magnifying the other. Don't miss 'Vanity...')
This books is embued with moments of real genius and literary flair. However, it is very long and there are frequent occasions when it felt like the author should have picked just one image with which to describe an image. As a first novel though it is incredibly impressive and this even explains the length of the novel. The storyline is fantastic and all of the numerous characters very well developed.
Kerouac wrote one truly great novel, and this - his first - was it. The prose is gorgeous. Full of jazz and imagery. The story has a point and makes it well. His follow up On the Road, which begins pretty much where this book left off, is one of the most pointless, overrated pieces of garbage ever published. I highly recommend reading this and ignoring everything that followed.
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Before I start with reading...Too much football? | 2 | 6 | Jan 30, 2013 09:14pm | |
| "Kill Your Darlings" film premieres at Sundance based in part on "The Town and the City" | 1 | 4 | Jan 23, 2013 03:59pm |
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
More about Jack Kerouac...
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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“And what does the rain say at night in a small town, what does the rain have to say? Who walks beneath dripping melancholy branches listening to the rain? Who is there in the rain’s million-needled blurring splash, listening to the grave music of the rain at night, September rain, September rain, so dark and soft? Who is there listening to steady level roaring rain all around, brooding and listening and waiting, in the rain-washed, rain-twinkled dark of night?”
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“He had never felt anything like that before - yet somehow he knew that from now on he would always feel like that, always, and something caught at his throat as he realized what a strange sad adventure life might get to be, strange and sad and still much more beautiful and amazing than he could ever have imagined because it was so really, strangely sad.”
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