I say 'struggle' in the best possible way, the adoption of any new faith is not, nor should it ever be, easy. It also documents Kerouac's struggle with Buddhism. The prose is rambling and abstract, though containing some excellent observations on life, childhood, memory, and dreams. Much of it is verbatim excerpts from Kerouac's journals while he was serving a summer as a fire lookout, alone atop a mountain in the North Cascades. It took me several attempts to get through it. The first part of Desolation Angels (the book is split into three distinct parts) can be quite difficult. Achieving literary success comes with its own consequences though, as Duluoz and his friends must face the scrutiny that comes with rising to the national stage. Duluoz draws readers into the trials and tribulations of these literary iconoclasts-from drug-fueled writing frenzies and alcoholic self-realizations to frenetic international road trips and tumultuous love affairs. Burroughs (as Bull Hubbard), Neal Cassady (as Cody Pomeray), and Allen Ginsberg (as Irwin Garden).

In Tangier he suffers a similar feeling of desperation during an opium overdose, and in Mexico City he meets up with a morphine-addicted philosopher and seeks an antidote to his solitude in a whorehouse.Īs in Kerouac’s other novels, Desolation Angels features a lively cast of pseudonymous versions of his fellow Beat poets, including William S. While working as a fire lookout on Desolation Peak in the Cascades, Duluoz contemplates his inner void and the distressing isolation brought on by his youthful sense of adventure. Jack Duluoz journeys from the Cascade Mountains to San Francisco, Mexico City, New York, and Tangier. This urgently paced yet deeply introspective novel closely tracks Jack Kerouac’s own life. A young man searches for meaning, creates art, and grapples with fame in this semiautobiographical Beat Generation classic by the author of On the Road.

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