A review by heybender
The Haunted Life: and Other Writings by Jack Kerouac
1.0
whenever an author's work enjoys renewed popularity several decades after their death, there always seems to be lost manuscripts that bubble to the surface. sometimes, these lost manuscripts provide great insight into the development of the author's style, and sometimes, these lost manuscripts are put out for the sole purpose of cashing in on the dead author's career revitalization. sadly, this book is the latter.
kerouac's writing here is very hacky and reads more like a high school freshman's writing assignment: big words are used simply to show off vocabulary, references to other authors are gratuitously inserted to show off how well read young kerouac was, plotting and character information is told explicitly rather than shown in a carefully crafted manner.
the actual manuscript only occupies about 70 pgs. of the books approximately 190 pgs. the rest of the book is stuffed with rambling notes and journal entries and letters that don't contribute much to the contextualization of the manuscript.
the introduction mentions that kerouac thought he had lost the haunted life manuscript. my guess is he actually realized how horrible it was; his literary reputation would have been better served by letting the haunted life remain buried.
kerouac's writing here is very hacky and reads more like a high school freshman's writing assignment: big words are used simply to show off vocabulary, references to other authors are gratuitously inserted to show off how well read young kerouac was, plotting and character information is told explicitly rather than shown in a carefully crafted manner.
the actual manuscript only occupies about 70 pgs. of the books approximately 190 pgs. the rest of the book is stuffed with rambling notes and journal entries and letters that don't contribute much to the contextualization of the manuscript.
the introduction mentions that kerouac thought he had lost the haunted life manuscript. my guess is he actually realized how horrible it was; his literary reputation would have been better served by letting the haunted life remain buried.