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A review by karnakjr
The Beats: A Graphic History by Joyce Brabner, Nick Thorkelson, Ed Piskor, Paul M. Buhle, Peter Kuper, Anne Timmons, Gary Dumm, Summer McClinton, Trina Robbins, Harvey Pekar, Mary Fleener, Nancy J. Peters, Jerome Neukirch, Jeffrey Lewis, Lance Tooks, Penelope Rosemont, Tuli Kupferberg, Jay Kinney
funny
informative
medium-paced
3.25
It’s been a minute since I’ve read Pekar, and his voice emerges instantly in this book. Piskor’s figures and faces are pretty cracking. The mania and energy of these dudes is on full display.
The book picks up on major beats in the lives of Kerouac, Ginsberg, and Burroughs. There’s some fun parts of this. Petty crime always warms my heart just a little, so the involvement in theft and fencing is fun. The down side is that this book is frank, and no bull shit is spilled to preserve someone’s heroes.
I think basically everyone covered is less cool than when I started. I knew misogyny ran deep for some beats, but the extent is pretty disheartening. Maybe worse is the unmitigated pederasty of the big 3. It’s also weird that Kerouac and Burroughs both wound up so right wing. Some of the closely associated figures seem to be real scumbags too. Neal Cassady, for example, seems like a real asshole.
The backups are a predictably mixed bag. I love Corso’s writing, so I got a little thrill outta his 2 pager, but wished there was more (but do I? Would I just have found out a bunch of horrible shit?). Brabner and McClinton fucking own their piece, “Beatnik Chicks”, which could have gotten 3 times as many pages and still felt brief. Lewis’s closing pages on Tupi Kupferberg and the Fugs is pretty fun.
When I was. A teenager and read The Dharma Bums, I wanted to live it. I was planning how to hitchhike from Alaska to Mexico. I’d figure the rest out when I got there. The English teacher that loaned me the book then told me how Kerouac wound up. I hated my alcoholic parents, so that really reigned me in. This book, 20+ years later, might be the final nail in any lingering idol worship.
The book picks up on major beats in the lives of Kerouac, Ginsberg, and Burroughs. There’s some fun parts of this. Petty crime always warms my heart just a little, so the involvement in theft and fencing is fun. The down side is that this book is frank, and no bull shit is spilled to preserve someone’s heroes.
I think basically everyone covered is less cool than when I started. I knew misogyny ran deep for some beats, but the extent is pretty disheartening. Maybe worse is the unmitigated pederasty of the big 3. It’s also weird that Kerouac and Burroughs both wound up so right wing. Some of the closely associated figures seem to be real scumbags too. Neal Cassady, for example, seems like a real asshole.
The backups are a predictably mixed bag. I love Corso’s writing, so I got a little thrill outta his 2 pager, but wished there was more (but do I? Would I just have found out a bunch of horrible shit?). Brabner and McClinton fucking own their piece, “Beatnik Chicks”, which could have gotten 3 times as many pages and still felt brief. Lewis’s closing pages on Tupi Kupferberg and the Fugs is pretty fun.
When I was. A teenager and read The Dharma Bums, I wanted to live it. I was planning how to hitchhike from Alaska to Mexico. I’d figure the rest out when I got there. The English teacher that loaned me the book then told me how Kerouac wound up. I hated my alcoholic parents, so that really reigned me in. This book, 20+ years later, might be the final nail in any lingering idol worship.