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4.11 AVERAGE
4.11 AVERAGE
A monster of a book that I couldn’t put down. Thoroughly researched and superbly written. Never have I read such a compelling biography!
I was juggling this, a collection of his poems, and his letters to Neal Cassady all during my sophomore year of college. I got obsessed with the Beats and read a lot by them/about them in my teens and early 20s.
What a life Ginsberg lived. He and PeterOrlovsky once saved a man from starvation in Benares, India. What a saint Ginzy was. He is missed.
This is one of the best biographies I have ever read, and at 585 pages, it is a commitment! Barry Miles blends Ginsberg's own words beautifully with newspaper and historical accounts of the time. As Miles says in the Afterword, Ginsberg gave Miles complete access to his unpublished letters and journals. What a treasure! Ginsberg's continuous approach to authenticity is astounding and completely inspiring. And I love how Miles does not sugar-coat Ginsberg's life. True to how Ginsberg approached his own "documenting" of his life, the darkness is shared with the light, equally. I had always had my reservations about Ginsberg, due to the misogyny that runs so deeply in the Beat movement, and while yes, it was there, I see so much more how Ginsberg was doing his best in the time that he lived in. Jack Kerouac, on the other hand? This book reveals what a woman-hating, conservative, drunk, apathetic man he really was (at least in his later years). And it is revealed that our culture still idolizes Kerouac, not just for his great writing, which is completely deserved, but because Ginsberg raised Kerouac to icon-level after his death. Ginsberg even says in his journals that he dedicated himself to making America remember the Kerouac that Ginsberg always wanted him to be, instead of the man he actually was. Fascinating stuff.
Enjoyed this immensely. At almost 600 pages it can look a tad daunting on the bookshelf, but it's extremely readable. A couple of other reviews mentioned too much detail - personally I thought it struck the perfect balance, giving enough detail to give a good sense of time and place without leading to glazed eyes. It's not an easy read, there's a lot of tragedy and senseless death and mental destruction, but it gives a valuable, unvarnished view of the lives Ginsberg and the other Beat sorts - Kerouac comes out of it particularly badly (misogynistic/anti-semitic/ultra-conservative/cowardly/tight-fisted/major mummy's boy) which makes a refreshing change from a lot of the romanticised nonsense that gets written about him.
Well laid out, accessible, not afraid to shy from controversy, and very connected to his poetry. Pretty much every thing I want in a biography.