- Paperback: 340 pages
- Publisher: Vintage; New edition edition (4 May 2000)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0099282690
- ISBN-13: 978-0099282693
- Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.8 x 2.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 702,138 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
As the leading members of the Beat Generation are increasingly incorporated into the mainstream of the literary canon, the time is clearly ripe for a carefully researched cultural history of the movement, and this is precisely what James Campbell has provided in his excellent book This is the Beat Generation. In a tour-de-force first section, Campbell reveals the immersion in madness and murder which first united Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg in the mid 1940s. Campbell offers a fascinating account of the literary development of all three writers, tracing the complex relations of all three to sex, drugs and crime. The book charts the domestic, artistic and geographical changes of all three writers, focusing on Kerouac's emotional paralysis, Ginsberg's struggle with his sexuality, and Burroughs' general weirdness. The most illuminating sections of the book are those which draw in the peripheral friends, lovers and muses which came to define the Beat Generation, as well as the sections on the development of On the Road, Howl and Other Poems and Naked Lunch. The book is painstakingly researched, and will be invaluable to anyone seriously interested in the Beats, as well as those who want to dip in for some great stories, but does lack a sense of the emotional relationships between its three central characters. Ending as it does in 1960, the book also cries out for a sequel which deals with the 60s and 70s. --Jerry Brotton
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
Product Description
Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs had all seen the inside of mental hospitals and prisons by the age of 30. This book charts the transformation of these experiences into a literary movement that spread across the globe in the decade and a half that followed World War II.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is an excellent history of the movers and shakers of the Beat Generation - primarily Ginsberg, Kerouac, and Burroughs. I would have liked more on where they came from, and a bit more on their influence. I also found Campbell's style a little florid at times. Nevertheless, it is an enjoyable and educational read.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I am a reader from Manchester, and found this account of the lives of those responsible for revolutionizing the way, both prose and verse can be written, extremely inspiring. Campbell has done his homework, and has come up with a piece of work that is not only educational, but immerses the reader into a scene that is full of life that is intellectually on the edge. A life worth digging! It gave me itchy feet, now I just want to hit the road! Do ya dig it?
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Before reading Campbell's beautifully researched book I have never found a work that focused on the interrelated lives of Kerouac, Ginsberg, and Burroughs, tracing their development in parallel and tracking the eventual divergence as each went his own way -- artistically, politically, and spritually. This Is The Beat Generation is a fascinating book, difficult to put down once you have started reading. Campbell brings to light a number of stories and anecdotes that will likely be new material even for serious Beat fans. Readers looking for an introduction to the Beat movement should be equally pleased. The book is especially strong in establishing the social/cultural context in which the Beat movement took place. Oddly, the one thing missing is any real sense of the emotions that fueled the Beat movement and sustain the continuing interest in Beat writing. Campbell seems to cast a skeptical eye on the the Beats -- or perhaps he is simply more objective than many previous writers. Nevertheless, I finished the book with a rather bleak feeling, a curious counterpoint to the excitement, exuberance, and enthusiasm for life that infuses so much of the original Beat writing.
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