A review by buddhafish
Doctor Sax by Jack Kerouac
2.0
26th book of 2020.
I'm reading a lot of Kerouac at the moment; this is my 7th. You may imagine my excitement then, on finding that this is Kerouac's own favourite of all of his work, and my edition has a quote from Time that reads: Kerouac's best book.
It is not. I'm sorry Jack, but this was mostly nonsense to me. There were some good lines, you can't help that, but on the whole, nonsense. About Doctor Sax and his big cape, and a Castle and vampires and a giant snake that wants to what, eat the world, or something?
Kerouac wrote this whilst staying in Mexico City with William S. Burroughs - I imagine a lot of drugs were used in its making. I also read somewhere (can't remember where) that Kerouac stopped chapters because Burroughs had simply walked into room in real life, so he wrapped up and ended where he was. Madness. I respect it, in an odd way. But it didn't make for a very good book. Though Kerouac says this is his favourite, out of the 7 I have read so far, this is the worst. Sorry. We disagree on something.
I'm reading a lot of Kerouac at the moment; this is my 7th. You may imagine my excitement then, on finding that this is Kerouac's own favourite of all of his work, and my edition has a quote from Time that reads: Kerouac's best book.
It is not. I'm sorry Jack, but this was mostly nonsense to me. There were some good lines, you can't help that, but on the whole, nonsense. About Doctor Sax and his big cape, and a Castle and vampires and a giant snake that wants to what, eat the world, or something?
Kerouac wrote this whilst staying in Mexico City with William S. Burroughs - I imagine a lot of drugs were used in its making. I also read somewhere (can't remember where) that Kerouac stopped chapters because Burroughs had simply walked into room in real life, so he wrapped up and ended where he was. Madness. I respect it, in an odd way. But it didn't make for a very good book. Though Kerouac says this is his favourite, out of the 7 I have read so far, this is the worst. Sorry. We disagree on something.