Registered: Jan 2001
Location: library
Posts: 19562

I found "Maggie Cassidy" in a box of books, and I started reading, curious since I've heard him mentioned so often.

I've read about 30 pages so far, and I'm tempted to burn it.

Anyone read this book? Does it get better? Anyone like him? hate him?

Mainly wondering if I should bother to finish this turd or just take it to the used book store.

-m

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Registered: May 2002
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i liked on the road cause i first read it on an i-70 road trip and i felt like i was traveling with him.

wasnt as into dharma bums as everyone else

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Registered: Jan 2001
Location: library
Posts: 19562

Are those the only two you have read?

What I'm mainly wanting to know is if the one I have is representative of his work, or if I should try something else, so really I'm looking for a fan, but I figured opening the discussion up some wouldn't hurt.

-m

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: A New England
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I've only read 'On the Road', and it was ok, in context of the time it was written.

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Registered: May 2002
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those are the only two i've read.

and the end of the day, they might not live up to the hype that some give them, but they are definitely worth your time.

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Registered: Jan 2001
Location: library
Posts: 19562

I guess I'll take a peek at On the Road next time I am in the bookstore.

-m

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Registered: Jul 2000
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As much as I hate to say it, as I have a huge affinity for Kerouac's scene, he was pretty much a one-shot author. On the Road. The rest is shit. But, that was one hell of a one-shot. You could very easily make the case for it being the Great American Novel. Reading some of his other stuff, one almost gets the sense that On the Road came together as nearly perfectly as it did almost entirely by accident. It's like how a mediocre experimental jazz improv guy somehow, during one recorded set, just hits the perfect rythm for that very moment, perfectly captured.

Maggie Cassidy is indicative of his work. Dharma Bums is probably his second best, and it's not very good. Desolation Angels, now that I think of it, was pretty good too. Jack Kerouac is famous not because he was a consisently good author. It was the scene he was part of, and On the Road. You can ignore pretty much everything else.

Try Ken Kesey and Tom Wolfe if you want to get a taste of the scene, but not have to sludge through Kerouac's stuff.

Ginsberg was the genius of the bunch. Kesey and Buroughs the best authors. Wolfe the best at chronicling the whole mess. And Cassady and Kerouac were the energy behind it. That's kind of how I catalog in my head the whole beat scene.

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Last edited by Paint CHiPs on 11-04-2004 at 11:44 AM

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Registered: Sep 2004
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quote:

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Originally posted by Paint CHiPs
Try Ken Kesey

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Registered: Jan 2001
Location: library
Posts: 19562

Alright, I'll chuck that one the box to go to the used book store. Thanks guys.

-m

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Registered: Oct 2001
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Wolfe wasn't part of the scene. He just wrote about it after the fact. I've not read any of the Beat writers myself, but I can't imagine On The Road being the Great American Novel. I'll give it a read, but I doubt if it's on a par with Melville or Fitzgerald or Cather.

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Registered: Oct 2001
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I did read Wolfe in my freshman year of high school, and it was cathartic.

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Registered: Jul 2000
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quote:

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Originally posted by Mugtoe
Wolfe wasn't part of the scene. He just wrote about it after the fact.

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But, he's completely integral to that whole scene, at least in my head. I can't think of Kesey or Cassady or Ginsberg or the beats in general without thinking of Wolfe, and he certainly chummed around with enough of them.

I'd also guess that my definition of the Great American Novel is markedly different than yours.

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Registered: Oct 2001
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well, they didn't serialize mine in Highlights, if that's what you mean

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Registered: Oct 2001
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I don't even know that he chummed it up with them, but he was my first introduction to them as well. I think he just caught up with some of them after the fact while doing research for the Acid Test book. That's the only thing of his that I've read.


and yes, all kidding aside, yer conception of the GAN is very different.

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: Cambridge
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He had to chum it up with Kesey for that book, though.

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Registered: Jul 2000
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complete and utter crap.

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Registered: Apr 2001
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i've also only read on the road and the dharma bums. on the road was really good the first time i read it, and is just kind of okay now. the dharma bums was pretty good the first time i read it, but now i reread it to annoy myself because it is kind of terrible. i would guess that if maggie cassidy was that bad, you probably won't like him generally. i am not at all tempted to read anything else he has written, except maybe as documentation of his life and collapse.

if someone was going to ask me what the "great american novel" was, i would probably say the grapes of wrath. or naked lunch, but i'm not sure that's a novel.

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