Tristessa
by Jack Kerouac
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 732)
Read in April, 2007
recommends it for:
Cynical Kerouac Haters
I'll admit I wrote my college entrance essay on "On The Road" and at that time in my life I was, like everyone else, inspired by the wild, wide-eyed, ideas of travel and adventure in America. I've returned to "On The Road" via "Dharma Bums" and "The Subterraneans" and "Desolation Angels" over the years to mixed results. I found instead of an entire philosophy of living that I could (and at one point did) subscribe to, rather sparks and gems of ...more
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Read in February, 2007
Despite suspicions (mostly my own) of anti-intellectuallism, I'm persisting with my investigation into books small enough to fit into one's jacket pocket. Clearly a book's worth cannot be measured in mass, but to what extent is it really possible to honor the peak of the sacred (the "novel") in less than, say, 150 pages? And to what extent can the formal consideration of length impact conventions in narrative, character development, etc.? My own pre-existing hypothesis is that a shorte...more
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Read in June, 2007
A writing professor once told me that I write like Jack Kerouac, which I think is why I bought this and one other Jack Kerouac book at the university book store long, long ago. I had never read his work, and I was curious about it.
Well, I finally got to read him today, and I don't know if I should be happy or not with the comparison my professor made.
The rhythm of the writing is like mine used to be, when I wrote for the professor's class -- very fluid and lyrical, like a subconscious th...more
Well, I finally got to read him today, and I don't know if I should be happy or not with the comparison my professor made.
The rhythm of the writing is like mine used to be, when I wrote for the professor's class -- very fluid and lyrical, like a subconscious th...more
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Read in January, 2001
The back cover of this book contains the following quote from Allen Ginsberg: This entire short novel Tristessa's a narrative meditation studying a hen, a rooster, a dove, a cat, a chihuaha dog, family meat, and a ravishing, ravished junky lady, first in their crowded bedroom, then out to drunken streets, taco stands, & pads at dawn in Mexico City slums.
Sounded pretty damn interesting to me, but it wasn't. It was a short work that felt long, a minor piece of writing barely worthy...more
Sounded pretty damn interesting to me, but it wasn't. It was a short work that felt long, a minor piece of writing barely worthy...more
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Read in January, 2003
If Kerouak weren’t dead, I would spit in his face for writing this piece-of-crap book. Top four problems: 1) Kerouak’s attempts at Spanish are grotesque. I don’t speak Spanish, and even I know he’s got half the words wrong. 2) His idiotic whiteboy quasi-Buddhist philosophy is sprinkled everywhere. 3) He doesn’t bother to explain until the last quarter of the book that one of the characters -- an older dopefiend named Bill, who’s also a brilliant writer -- isn’t actually Burroughs. ...more
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Tristessa is another quick read Kerouac book. Chronicles a dirty little jaunt through Mexico involving a quirky little whore (aren't they always) and her various makeshift pets. Dirty, grimey, yet still Kerouac like in it's quaintness. Yes yes, he has the ability to make the mundane interesting, but any Karouac reader already knows that. Read this during my Summer of Kerouac, I think it was like 2002 or something.
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Read in January, 1993
Another great Kerouac novel. This one is slim, about a brief love affair with a black girl in San Francisco. I heard he changed it from New York so it wouldn't be so obvious who it was about. A heartbreaking story, like most of Kerouac's love affairs turned out, because his heart was never really in it, or at least it only burned brightly for a little while then faded when he felt the road calling yet again.
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Kerouac attempts to sketch for the reader a picture of quiet transcendence in hectic and sometimes dangerous circumstances. Allen Ginsberg, in describing the book, wrote, "Tristessa's a narrative meditation studying a hen, a rooster, a dove, a cat, a dog, family meat, and a ravishing, ravished junky lady".
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Read in November, 2007
this is an interesting work that examines the life of a junky, the love of a junky, and the failure of both, studied mostly through a series of prose sketches on various animals and their response of non-concern for the trappings of human kind. a good book, especially to just down in an afternoon.
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Read in January, 2008
this is a very lovely book...
"since beginningless time and into the never-ending future, men have loved women without telling them, and the Lord has loved them without telling, and the void is not the void because there's nothing to be empty of."
"since beginningless time and into the never-ending future, men have loved women without telling them, and the Lord has loved them without telling, and the void is not the void because there's nothing to be empty of."
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A graceful, gentle, sadhearted book--less macho than "On the Road," less crank-addled than "The Subterraneans," but probably better than either.
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Read in October, 1997
This story goes as usual. Drugs. People doing crazy things for drugs. The thing that makes this story stick out in my memory as note-worthy is the ever-so-passive and not at all proud character, Tristessa, who will do anything for a shot.
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Read in September, 1995
recommended to Nate by:
An advertisement from GAP...recommends it for: Everyone
The first book I ever read of Kerouac's - I had no idea who he was at the time - and the first paragraph of this little book had such a profound impact on me, it changed the way I looked at writing immediately, and forever.
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A little difficult to get through...easier if you read it aloud, as I believe is the case with all Kerouac. Beautifully written story that makes you fall in love with a morphine-addicted Mexican prostitute.
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Read in September, 2000
recommends it for:
People bored with reading
This little gem of a novel is more a 90 page poem, a 90 page riff with what feels like three periods (.'s) and no holds barred. Some of the most intense, longing, sorrowful, playful words imagined.
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Small in size but large in heart -- I love this story. No matter what size the canvas the amount of energy and detail that Kerouac gifts the reader with makes other writers look lazy.
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Read in August, 1993
I loaned this to someone in 1993-1994. Not that I'm that broken up by it. Not one of Kerouac's stronger titles. Written during his final Florida drunken bastard days.
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morphina and old bull won't let him wear effeminate cus not a good look; mexico and a love interest in the void
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I'm reading this now. It was recommended by a friend who also never enjoyed Kerouac. I'm enjoying it.
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love can be as ugly as an addiction, becoming beautiful only in retrospection...
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book data (includes all editions)
avg rating (all editions): 3.58 (613 ratings) avg rating (this edition): 3.57 (607 ratings) number of reviews: 41popular shelves
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quote
"I'll go to the south of Sicily in the winter, and paint memories of Arles – I'll buy a piano and Mozart me that – I'll write long sad tales about people in the legend of my life – This part is my part of the movie, let's hear yours"
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