Gabrielle's review
The Subterraneans (Paperback) by Jack Kerouac
Jack Kerouac fell in and out of love with women--white women, Latina women, and black women, but it proved that he was always mommy's boy. This book proves it, showing how he at once wanted and was smitten by the lovely Alene Lee--Mardou Fox in the novel--and then sabotaged the relationship by pushing her in his jealousy and self-doubt into the arms of someone else.
Some may call him sentimental and tender in this novel. A few others have called him superficial and downright racist in his depiction of blacks in the Fifties in San Francisco. He focused again, as he did with Latinos in other works, on what he called blacks' 'primitive' and 'humble' self-expression, this time in jazz. Of course, his observations are made without really knowing who, how, why and what they actually were outside of clubs and bars. Don't get me wrong...I was rooting for Leo and Mardou to get together, and there were parts when I was almost convinced. After a while, I couldn't wait to get to the en...more
Some may call him sentimental and tender in this novel. A few others have called him superficial and downright racist in his depiction of blacks in the Fifties in San Francisco. He focused again, as he did with Latinos in other works, on what he called blacks' 'primitive' and 'humble' self-expression, this time in jazz. Of course, his observations are made without really knowing who, how, why and what they actually were outside of clubs and bars. Don't get me wrong...I was rooting for Leo and Mardou to get together, and there were parts when I was almost convinced. After a while, I couldn't wait to get to the en...more
