Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.

Start by marking “Desolation Angels” as Want to Read:

Other editions

Enlarge cover

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Open Preview

Desolation Angels

(Duluoz Legend)

Jack Kerouac,

Joyce Johnson (Introduction by)

3.93 · Rating details · 10,486 ratings · 341 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, Neal Cassady, 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.

In one ...more

Get A Copy

Paperback, First Riverhead trade paperback edition, 432 pages

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

More Details... Edit Details

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Reader Q&A

To ask other readers questions about Desolation Angels, please sign up.

Be the first to ask a question about Desolation Angels

Lists with This Book

Jack Kerouac's Best

20 books — 98 voters

The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

Most Poetic Book Titles

1,484 books — 805 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

Showing 1-30

Average rating 3.93 ·

Rating details

· 10,486 ratings · 341 reviews

More filters

Sort order

Start your review of Desolation Angels

Sep 06, 2010 Laura rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, literary

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

flag 72 likes · Like · see review

Apr 16, 2018 Steven Godin rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: america-canada, non-fiction, fiction

Described by some as Kerouac's best work, Desolation Angels contains everything you would come to expect from a key writer of the Beat Generation, with an abundance of Jack's sometimes difficult to grasp Spontaneous Prose. This was such a mixed bag for me, from the stream of his semi-conscious jazz-like rhythm fuzzy beatnik mind, to the more clearer and poignant writing later on that chronicles the travelling lives of himself, his friends, including Irwin Garden (Allen Ginsberg) and Bull Hubbard Described by some as Kerouac's best work, Desolation Angels contains everything you would come to expect from a key writer of the Beat Generation, with an abundance of Jack's sometimes difficult to grasp Spontaneous Prose. This was such a mixed bag for me, from the stream of his semi-conscious jazz-like rhythm fuzzy beatnik mind, to the more clearer and poignant writing later on that chronicles the travelling lives of himself, his friends, including Irwin Garden (Allen Ginsberg) and Bull Hubbard (William Burroughs), Cody Pomeray (Neal Cassady) and towards the end, an emotive journey with his own mother. Even William Carlos Williams gets a brief appearance later on.

The biggest problem came in the first one-hundred pages or so, thrown straight into the deep end with some egocentric text that I struggled to fathom. Jack Duluoz (Kerouac) spends an age stuck on a mountain (desolation peak) recording a long hot summer fire-watching, searching for spiritual meaning, and just getting high. A lot of what he rabbles on about didn't make a blind bit of sense, but still somehow through the blurry images managed to convey a feeling of loneliness and isolation, creating an epiphany rooted solely in the self, before finally plodding on down to life below, and where his writing started to pick up. Not just slightly, but massively. For me though, the best this book had to offer didn't happen until past the mid-way point, simply because it was more reader friendly.

Whether travelling with a purpose, or just aimlessly wandering, you get the sense of importance not just through miles covered, but an internal journey shaping his life. He proceeds to travel south, down the West Coast of America, staying in San Francisco, on into Mexico where he falls in with his buddies, back north to New York, before a ships voyage to Tangiers that seemed to be the drugs capital of the world, before a knackered Duluoz finally takes in Paris and London (albeit briefly). Heading back to the States he embarks on a trip with his mother through Florida, Texas, the tip of Mexico and California again. This was him at his most affecting as a writer. Many people he runs into, whether those he knows or his proper friends who feature regularly seem to live a constant stream of reading, writing, drinking, smoking, some screwing with prostitutes and drug taking. It sounds like a blast them having the time of their lives, but for the reader there is sometimes so much crammed in to short passages it's hard to keep up on what's what. There is a little misogyny, and a few below the belt occurrences, but for a book of this nature that's to be expected.

I am not suddenly going to turn into a big admirer of kerouac's work. His poetry didn't connect with me at all. I never got to finish 'On the Road', and are in no hurry to read him again any time soon. But this was my best kerouac experience to date. It took a while to get going, had some great moments both funny and moving, and I appreciate his unique style a little more now.
Two stars for the first third, three to four for everything else. ...more

flag 66 likes · Like · see review

Feb 08, 2017 Vit Babenco rated it really liked it · review of another edition

“My life is a vast and insane legend reaching everywhere without beginning or ending, like the Void – like Samsara – A thousand memories come like tics all day perturbing my vital mind with almost muscular spasms of clarity and recall…”
Solitude isn’t for Jack Kerouac – alone on the mountain peak he is tortured and intimidated by loneliness and gets bored with it.
“…the vision of the freedom of eternity which I saw and which all wilderness hermitage saints have seen, is of little use in cities and ...more

flag 39 likes · Like · see review

May 07, 2020 Matthew rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: lit-american, read-2020, 20th-century

72nd book of 2020.

This is my 8th Kerouac now - And though not my favourite (that is still Big Sur - review here), this is still a great read.

Desolation Angels begins again, where we are left at the end of The Dharma Bums - at the top of the mountain as a fire-warden. Then we traverse not only America but Mexico, Tangiers and England. The most interesting part for me was the short section in Tangiers with writer William S. Burroughs. Neal Cassady returns too (Dean Moriarty in On the Road) as Co 72nd book of 2020.

This is my 8th Kerouac now - And though not my favourite (that is still Big Sur - review here), this is still a great read.

Desolation Angels begins again, where we are left at the end of The Dharma Bums - at the top of the mountain as a fire-warden. Then we traverse not only America but Mexico, Tangiers and England. The most interesting part for me was the short section in Tangiers with writer William S. Burroughs. Neal Cassady returns too (Dean Moriarty in On the Road) as Cody. So, we have many returning characters.

I have to record this short discussion between Kerouac and Burroughs, referring to the shocking nature of the images in Burroughs' work. Kerouac is speaking first.

'Why are all these young boys in white shirts being hanged in limestone caves?'
'Dont ask me - I get these messagesfrom other planets - I'm apparently some kind of agent from another planet but I havent got all my orders clearly decoded yet.'
'But why all the vile rheum - like r-h-e-u-m.'
'I'm shitting out my educated Middlewest background for once and for all. It's a matter of catharsis where I say the most horrible thing I can think of- Realise that, the most horrible dirty slimy awful niggardliest posture possible - By the time I finish this book I'll be pure as an angel, my dear. These great existential anarchists and terrorists so-called never even their own drippy fly mentioneth, dear - They should poke sticks thru their shit and analyse that for social progress.'
'But where'll all this shit get us?'
'Simply get us rid of shit, really Jack.' He whips out (it's 4 p.m.) the afternoon's aperitif cognac bottle. We both sigh to see it.

Kerouac also gives us beautiful writing, as expected, and at the end, honest and heartfelt writing about his mother. There is a lot on the internet, and in biographies, about Kerouac and his mother- how he (I'm paraphrasing some quote I remember here): 'never freed himself from her apron strings' - never could 'escape' her. He loved her 'too' much.

But anyway - I'm here for Kerouac's unwavering voice, and beautiful writing:

But how can I ever forget even madder Fall in the Skagit Valley where it would whip the silver ooing moon with slavers of cold mist, smelling of orchards, and tar rooftops with night-ink colours that smelt as rich as frankincense, woodsmoke, leafsmoke, river rain, the smell of the cold on your kneepants, the smell of doors opening, the door of Summer's opened and let in brief glee-y fall with his apple smile, behind him old sparkly winter hobbles ...more

flag 10 likes · Like · see review

Jan 15, 2009 Joscha rated it really liked it

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

flag 8 likes · Like · see review

Jun 18, 2009 Dava B rated it it was amazing

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

flag 6 likes · Like · see review

Apr 19, 2008 East Bay J rated it really liked it

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 bet 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. ...more

flag 5 likes · Like · see review

Jun 15, 2011 Andy Miller rated it liked it

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 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

...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Nov 10, 2012 Robert Mitchell rated it really liked it

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

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Aug 11, 2014 Harry Whitewolf rated it it was amazing

Shelves: beat-bums-drunks-n-drugs

Forget On The Road- this is Kerouac at his best. Combining the spiritual philosophies of the Dharma Bums, the road and parties and seeking of On The Road and the desolation and isolation of the human spirit in the abyss of nature of Big Sur. To me, this is Jack's most accessible and balanced writing, not only for the content, but also for his lyrical prose being at its finest. Genius! ...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Feb 23, 2016 Reid rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: review, kerouac, literature-classics, 4-stars, 2016

Another excellent chapter in his life, with many great moments. Geographically wide-ranging, from the isolation of Desolation Peak in Washington state to lively San Fran, to the slums and mescal of Mexico City, back to friends and new lovers in NY City, then to Tangiers with morphine-addicted Burroughs and his new book "Nude Supper", haha, to LA by bus with his mother, and finally to Florida to rest his weary tired soul. Definitely felt the desolation throughout this book, over and over he talks ...more

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Aug 28, 2007 Sarah Crawford rated it liked it

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. ...more

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Sep 06, 2012 Andrew rated it it was amazing

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

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Feb 23, 2015 Scott Lesperance rated it did not like it

I tried getting into this but wow, this is horrible and I dont understand why so many give it great reviews.
His style is extremely awkward, and the mini-rants(for lack of better term) are pointless. I could not get past page 5.

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

May 22, 2019 robin friedman rated it really liked it

Loneliness And Restlessness On Desolation Peak

After reading the memoirs of Helen Weaver 'The Awakener: A Memoir of Kerouac" and Joyce Johnson (Glassman) "Minor Characters", I wanted to read Kerouac's novel "Desolation Angels". Kerouac had a short relationship with Weaver in 1956 followed by a longer relationship with Johnson. In "Desolation Angels", Kerouac describes his relationship with these women from his own perspective. There is much more to the book.

"Desolation Angels" is the most literal Loneliness And Restlessness On Desolation Peak

After reading the memoirs of Helen Weaver 'The Awakener: A Memoir of Kerouac" and Joyce Johnson (Glassman) "Minor Characters", I wanted to read Kerouac's novel "Desolation Angels". Kerouac had a short relationship with Weaver in 1956 followed by a longer relationship with Johnson. In "Desolation Angels", Kerouac describes his relationship with these women from his own perspective. There is much more to the book.

"Desolation Angels" is the most literally autobiographical of Kerouac's novels, with the author frequently only slightly changing the names of his friends and supporting characters. The book covers about one year in Kerouac's life, from the summer, 1956, to late 1957, just before the New York Times published a favorable review of "On the Road" which took Kerouac from obscurity to fame. The book is in two large sections (called "books") written at different times and in different styles. Kerouac wrote book one titled "Desolation Angels" in 1956-1957 shortly after the events it describes. The book is written in the spontaneous, associative stream-of-consciousness style that characterizes Kerouac's best-known work. It was rejected for publication in 1957.

In 1961, when Kerouac was in the middle of a long decline, he wrote the second book of what became "Desolation Angels", titled "Passing Through" while living in Mexico. Kerouac's writing in this second book, which includes his relationships with Weaver and Glassman, is more straightforward narrative than in the first book. Kerouac thought of publishing each part as separate works but decided to combine the two together. The result is "Desolation Angels" first published in 1965. The current edition of the book, which dates from 1995, begins with a valuable introduction by Joyce Johnson.

In the summer of 1956, Kerouac worked for two months in western Washington in isolation on a fire tower on Desolation Peak. Kerouac thought he would be able to use this period of isolation for meditation and gaining control of his life. He soon found himself, however, missing friends, companionship and every day activity. Kerouac reflects on his surroundings, on his family, and on his earlier life in short, stream-of-conscious sections before he comes down from the mountain to rejoin the world. A sense of religious and philosophical meditation, which includes a great deal of Buddhism, also pervades Kerouac's discussion of his time on Desolation Peak and the novel as a whole.

The remainder of book one describes Kerouac's descent from the mountain and hitchhiking through Portland to San Francisco. He spends a riotous week with his friends in the middle of the San Francisco Poetry renaissance, but the best scenes are of Kerouac and his friends having fun and walking the streets. Neal Cassady, Allen Ginsburg, and Gregory Corso, with slightly changed names, play important roles. The sense of dissatisfaction and the need to move on, whether alone on Desolation Peak or with friends, is critical to Kerouac. Unhappy in San Francisco, he sets off for Mexico.

The aptly titled "Passing Through", book two of the work, describes Kerouac's continued restlessness, spiritual questioning, and dizzying journeys to Mexico, New York City, Tangiers, France, back to New York, California, and New York again. When he wrote "Passing Through" in 1961, Kerouac was famous.. He was seriously troubled by the faddish attention given to the so-called "Beat Movement" which he had not intended to create. In "Passing Through", Kerouac describes how "On the Road" is accepted for publication, but he makes relatively little of this.. In many places, Kerouac addresses his readers directly and intimately. Thus, early in book two he cautions his readers:

"And also dont think of me as a simple character-- A lecher, a ship-jumper, a loafer, a conner of older women, even of queers, an idiot, nay a drunken baby Indian when drinking--- Got socked everywhere and never socked back (except when young tough football player)-- In fact, I don't even know what I was-- Some kind of fevered being different as a snowflake....In any case, a wondrous mess of contradictions (good enough, said Whitman) but morefit for the Holy Russia of the 19th Century than for this modern America of crew cuts and sullen faces in Pontiacs--".

The scenes in Mexico City, with Bill Burroughs in Tangiers, and particularly with his mother in a long, disastrous trip to California are as good as the scenes with Weaver and Johnson.

This book captures a great deal of Kerouac and his contradictions. It shows a man who loved and tried to savor the common experiences of life, his friends, lovers, and food, and yet suffered from an inner loneliness and restlessness. Wherever he was, Kerouac felt he had to be somewhere else. Alcoholism and drugs and wandering inexorably took their toll. The story is told in "Desolation Angels" with strong religious overtones. The spirituality in this book is complex and unsystematized. It includes Buddhism, Catholicism and simple living in the here and now but does not reduce to any formula. I found the spiritual quest theme of this book challenging and moving.

"Desolation Angels" is a difficult mixed book, with eloquent writing together with portions that are less successful. The work gradually won me over as a read into it. This book will be of greatest interest to readers with a strong passion for Kerouac who have read, for example, "On the Road", "The Dharma Bums" and "Tristessa". These three novels are all available in the Library of America's excellent volume of Kerouac's "Road Novels". "Desolation Angels" itself is not included in any LOA volume of Kerouac.

Robin Friedman ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Sep 16, 2020 Tien rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, american, loved

"And on the way home he always tells the driver to stop at Cine So and So, the nearby movie house, and walks the extra block so no cabby ever knows where he lives. 'When I go across the border nobody can put the finger on me because I put the finger up my ass.'
What a strange vision, an old man walking across the border with his finger up his behind?" [p. 232] ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Dec 17, 2008 Alan Scott rated it really liked it

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,
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. ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Oct 05, 2009 Kate Buck rated it liked it · review of another edition

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

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 behind i 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. ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Apr 21, 2013 Dane Cobain rated it liked it

Desolation Angels contains everything that you've come to expect from Kerouac, from the stream-of-consciousness jazz-like rhythm of his beatnik writing to the way that he chronicles the lives of himself and his friends in 1950s America.

The book begins with a pensive Kerouac atop a mountain, Jack's record of a long, lonely summer spent fire-watching. After this period of desolation, he returns to the bright lights of the big cities to meet up with his friends, many of whom were high-profile liter Desolation Angels contains everything that you've come to expect from Kerouac, from the stream-of-consciousness jazz-like rhythm of his beatnik writing to the way that he chronicles the lives of himself and his friends in 1950s America.

The book begins with a pensive Kerouac atop a mountain, Jack's record of a long, lonely summer spent fire-watching. After this period of desolation, he returns to the bright lights of the big cities to meet up with his friends, many of whom were high-profile literary figures even at the time.

Expect to see plenty of familiar faces disguised behind new names, like Allen Ginsberg as Irwin Garden, William Burroughs as Bull Hubbard, Neal Cassady as Cody Pomeray, Gregory Corso as Raphael Urso, Peter Orlovski as Simon Darlovsky and Gary Snyder as Jarry Wagner. William Carlos Williams even makes an appearance as 'Dr. Williams'.

Kerouac's style can be difficult to concentrate on for a long period of time, but it was just right for me to read on the bus on my daily commute. The book is split in to two sections, and these two sections are split further in to dozens of short chapters. Actually, this approach compliments Kerouac's storytelling well, as the pauses help to make the novel feel more like a conversation.

As with most of Kerouac's writing, this was difficult to categorise - in the end, I had to plump for both 'fiction' and 'non-fiction'. While his books are, essentially, non-fiction, occasional additions and the changing of the names is enough to qualify the work as semi-autobiographical. Frequent readers will notice that the aliases that he uses sometimes change from novel to novel - Cody Pomeray, for example, was Dean Moriarty in On the Road. Apparently, this is because of the objections of some of his publishers.

While Desolation Angels starts off slowly, it helps to convey the sense of loneliness and isolation that Kerouac was feeling while he whiled away the days on top of a mountainside. Just keep on reading - he soon comes down, and the introspective version of Kerouac that we see at the start of the novel quickly readjusts himself to life amongst his old friends. Let the drunken shenanigans commence.

Oh, and keep an eye out for Simon Darlovsky - he'll probably try to penetrate you. ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Aug 10, 2018 Joel Lacivita rated it really liked it

I found this book to be very thought provoking. The first section was particularly interesting when he was alone and isolated on the top of mountain in the state of Washington. Jack's books are all based on his experiences, and I can't imagine being a lookout on the top of a mountain, all alone and isolated for an entire month. It is here where the theme of the book is set.

The desolation angels are his troupe of famous beatniks that keep him from feeling isolated. The rest of the novel involves ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

May 05, 2014 GK Stritch rated it it was amazing

Jack-EEE Duluoz climbs the mountain, and comes down (p. 113):

"I go all the way down to First Avenue . . . I realize it's Friday Night all over America, in New York it's just ten o'clock and the fight's started in the Garden and longshoremen in North River bars are all watching the fight and drinking 20 beers apiece, and Sams are sitting in the front row . . . while I spent all summer pacing and praying in mountaintops, of rock and snow, of lost birds and bears, these people've been sucking on ci ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

May 09, 2016 Rob rated it did not like it

Shelves: 2016

It was all downhill after the beautiful title save for some sporadic flashes of poignancy... I was leery of picking up this late-career work of Kerouac's, coming at a point when his writing had saturated the market and booze had flooded his talent. My worst fears were confirmed: this is an incoherent mess. He primes us for tedium by shamelessly recycling The Dharma Bums for the first 70 odd pages, then rambles his way through an endless procession of tired, desultory nonsense. It has none of the ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Jul 30, 2018 Megan Clarke rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favourites

I finally found it. The book that changed my life. A bible for any avid and aspiring reader, poet, philosopher, writer, adventurer.

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Sep 14, 2017 John Eastman rated it it was amazing

I absolutely loved this book. Why? Mostly because I´ve always been a fan of Kerouacs writing style, his sincerely and progress as a writer as well as a human beeing. While some might argue that in his later year he became a bitter alcoholic one must say that it never affected his writing in a negative way. This is not On The Road, it´s darker and grittier but that may be exactly why I liked it so much.

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Feb 11, 2021 Void rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This isn't a book for everybody, but indeed there is something about Kerouac's writing that I find so compelling: honesty, and yes even honesty about the emptiness of a life of radical debauchery while reveling in it. He captures the ambiguity of life, the ambiguity of the self in a rootless life, or at least an attempt at rootlessness, for Kerouac wasn't entirely rootless. He had Memère. ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Mar 10, 2019 Sebastian rated it liked it

Oh what a shame oh what a shame but he does speak beautifully about his mother

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Aug 18, 2018 Simon Robs rated it liked it

Kerouac epitomizes his roaming road-dog philosophy as oscillating from beat as in beat down to beatific as scintillant angel-in-waiting penitent walking, thumbing, noticing the lost backroads of the world's underbelly. "Desolation Angels" begins on a mountaintop in contemplation and after a roller-coaster ride through the detritus riddled mélange of Beat characters' antics arrives worn and shorn of hubris but nonetheless a writer of notoriety in the making. "On the Road" was published in early S ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Mar 28, 2010 Ruth rated it really liked it

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 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. ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Dec 08, 2009 Hunter Marston rated it liked it

This book was unique among Keruoac books I've read. It seemed like it was cobbled together by editors in a hurry to sell Keruoac in his post-On the Road fame. It reads as three or four different book projects thrown together into a rather erratic timeline. One: in the Pacific Northwest in solitude, written much more in the style of Big Sur or Dharma Bums spontaneous poetry; Two: shenanigans in San Fransisco with fellow Beats; Three: off in Mexico City (at which point he includes self-reference t ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Aug 09, 2013 Allan MacDonell rated it it was amazing

The thing to admire about Jack Kerouac is that he was smart enough to disguise the fact that he was an idiot, in his books at least, and he didn’t do that. This is not to deny that his writings are streaked through with layers of pretentious dispensations lathered upon his fictional self and his thinly disguised friends and literary contemporaries. Starting with its title, Desolation Angels is veined with bold assertions of eternal sacred significance for Kerouac’s book-famous crew of basic fuck ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
2017 Reading Chal...: Desolation Angels - Jack Kerouac	1	10	Jun 29, 2016 07:32AM
Books, Blogs, Aut...: One paragraph review: Kerouac's Desolation Angels	1	7	May 26, 2013 08:11PM
The Perks Of Bein...: One paragraph review: Kerouac's Desolation Angels	1	10	May 26, 2013 08:09PM

Readers also enjoyed

See similar books…

Genres

Fiction

276 users

Classics

60 users

Literature

51 users

Novels

33 users

Literature > American

32 users

Travel

12 users

Literature > 20th Century

11 users

Literary Fiction

8 users

Contemporary

8 users

Anthologies > Collections

6 users

See top shelves…

About Jack Kerouac

Jack Kerouac

9,624 followers

Jack Kerouac was born Jean-Louis Lebris de Kerouac on March 12, 1922, in Lowell, Massachusetts. Jack Kerouac's writing career began in the 1940s, but didn't meet with commercial success until 1957, when On the Road was published. The book became an American classic that defined the Beat Generation. Kerouac died on October 21, 1969, from an abdominal hemorrhage, at age 47.

...more