- Paperback: 464 pages
- Publisher: Flamingo; New Ed edition (19 Nov 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0586091599
- ISBN-13: 978-0586091593
- Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 13 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 364,690 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
‘His most ambitious novel. An opportunity to sample the tenderness, richness and vibrancy of his writing.’ New Statesman
‘It is easy enough for us now to read the distress of America in the movies and novels of the Fifties, to see the panic and disarray behind the cosy fictions. But Kerouac read it then, when the Fifties had scarcely started. His best work is always elegiac, a mourning for something vanished before it has even properly arrived.’ New Society
‘“Visions of Cody” recreates Cody’s world in a series of epiphanies, all recorded with the expansive lyricism of a Whitman whose America has reached the end of the road. It is at once an epitaph and a rhapsodic celebration of the American Beat world.’ TLS
Product Description
Kerouac’s classic fictional tribute to Neal Cassady.
Many years before its first unabridged publication, ‘Visions of Cody’ became an underground classic. Written by Kerouac at his creative zenith, the book is a celebration of the life of Neal Cassady, his great friend and inspiration. Appearing here as Cody Pomeray, Cassady was also immortalised as Dean Moriarty in ‘On the Road’.
The son of a drunken Denver drop-out, brought up homeless and motherless during the Depression, Cassady lived his life raw – hustling in pool halls, stealing cars for marathon joy rides across the States, living wild and penniless amongst society’s misfits and outcasts. He left a sizzling reputation in his wake, becoming the insane Beat Demon of San Francisco. Through him Kerouac created one of the few lasting heroes of 20th-century literature and established himself in the great tradition of American letters.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
'Visions of Cody' presents, in spontaneous prose and tape transcripts, Jack Kerouac's attepmt to describe his friend and inspiration, Neal Cassady (Cody). From the heady heights of hallucination and dream, to the mundane yet beautiful detail of everyday life Kerouac trawls his memory and his dreams for the definitive Cassady. On the way he struggles with the demons of humanity- time, identity and death. In his haunting desperation to show to the world the inner beauty of Cassady, Kerouac unwittingly unearth's his love/hate relationship for the man it seems he can live neither with nor without. 'Visions of Cody' is not only an insight into the life of Cassady, but a breathtaking insight into the collective consciousness of humanity. In Cody's final demise into normality we are forced to question our own lives and our own purpose. It seems a relatively free spirit like Cassady's could not survive in modern day America, and 'Visions of Cody' becomes an elegy for the man who could not bear to become his father. Beautiful and frank, a more direct route into the mind of Jack Kerouac than 'On the Road'.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The best parts of this book are poetic, sad, exhilarating, and rank with the best of Kerouac. The maddening parts are self-indulgent, repetitive, boring, and sexist. Most of the latter are in the long central section (pages 120-250 of a 400 page book)and consist of transcriptions of tape recordings mostly of Kerouac and Cassady, with a party scene and some other people at times. Some of it is interesting, and some of it is of historical interest, but the rest doesn't need to be there. The book itself is a tribute to Cassady (like much of On the Road) and a lot of the sadness can be attributed to the fact that when it was written, Cassady had settled down to the type of married-with-children-and-a-job life that was what much of Kerouac's writing and adventures on the road were rejecting. Another part of the sadness has to do with the gap between America's promise and America's reality. Kerouac was hardly the first writer to notice this, but there weren't many writers, besides his friends, during the post-war economic boom and the complacency of the McCarthy and Eisenhower 50's who were noticing this. And while many have tried, no one has captured his unique poetic voice and vision. The fact that much of the book is like a long prose poem makes it difficult to read, but in the end, well worth it.
3 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is what 'On The Road' should have been. The first 150 pages are enough to send you either insane or to heaven, and are more akin to a portrait than a narrative piece, painting a picture of Kerouac's relationship with Neal Cassady far superior to that shown in 'On The Road'. The description and emotion of the 1st 150 pages are vivid and some of the most impressive in 20th century literature - indeed it is one of the three contemporary masterpieces - along with Joyce's 'Finnigan's Wake' and W.S.Burroughs' 'Naked Lunch' - in fact Burroughs' himself highlighted the first 150 pages of 'Visions of Cody' as Kerouac's masterpiece (excuse me if I don't insert the exact quote but I don't have it to hand). The centre section of the work is a transcription of conversations between JK and NC as well as a few other prominent figures such as Ginsberg. This is quite interesting but can get quite labourious. After these he returns to the style of the first section. In finishing I would like to say that I recommend this to any Kerouac reader and, if possible, if there's no-one to think you're going insane, read it out loud - and in Kerouac's voice - there is a CD you can get from verve records to get the rhythm of Kerouac's speaking - these methods help in understanding the book, just like you should read 'Finnigan's Wake' in an Irish Accent
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
This is the one the separates the men from the boys.
There are many readers that have read "On the Road" and rightfully appreciate it's narrative and structure. Read more
Published on 25 Jun 1998
a perfection on the fine art of "sketching"
this is not really the type of book to snuggle up with if you're sleepy. if your mind is awake enough you will be jolted into a feverish state of yearning to be there as the... Read more
Published on 27 Oct 1997
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