A review by weetziebot
The Beats: A Graphic History by Paul M. Buhle

3.0

I can't remember when I read this book though I do remember a red haired boy from Lowell tried to impress me on the train by telling me Jack Kerouac was also from Lowell (which I knew since I had just read that two pages before he told me). I imagine it was shortly after it came out in the spring of 2009 but may have been more recently. The brief biological sketches of Burroughs, Kerouac and Ginsberg were interesting...sort of. I loved the artwork, but I could have just read a bunch of wikipedia articles. The writing was often dry (despite the subjects), jokes were corny or forced. I'm not sure who the intended audience was but for much of the book I felt as though someone was trying to beat into my head "THE BEATS WERE REVOLUTIONARY, CRAZY AND TOTALLY COOL" but I already knew that...that's why I wanted to read the book in the first place. The second half of the book was much better, each author and artist pair captured a very 'beat' sensibility that came across in each segment, mostly because few of them said "This happened, and then this other thing happened and then so and so did this". Beatnick Chicks by Joyce Brabner was one of my favorites!

*If anyone remembers me reading this book in 2010 let me know!