A review by grrrlfriday
The Haunted Life: and Other Writings by Jack Kerouac

3.0

I have mixed feelings. The prose is fantastic and I loved the main character but I wish Kerouac wasn't so dismissive of the female characters in the novel. I realize it was the early 1940s so what can you expect, but it still bothered me. In some of the non-fiction writings at the end of the book he expressed some philosophies that I am opposed to, including some borderline racist sympathizing. It's almost like I wish I hadn't read it. Now I plan to go back and read some of my Kerouac favorites to see if those themes are present there as well, and decide if I need to retire them as favorites.