The Awakener

di Helen Weaver (Autore)

City Lights Publishers, 2014

“Kerouac’s oldest living girlfriend!” (Helen Weaver’s own description) While there are a number of Kerouac “tell-alls” by former girlfriends and wives, this book differs in that it combines an intimate portrait of Kerouac with a scholarly look at the gradual change in his reputation over the years. Weaver paints a broader portrait of the times, including a brief glimpse into the early sixties when she was involved with another famous American iconoclast, Lenny Bruce. Weaver looks back on her time with Kerouac after an interval of fifty years, and talks about how her feelings toward him as a man, and as a writer, have changed during that period. Weaver admits that while women like Joyce Johnson, Edie Kerouac-Parker, Joan Haverty and Carolyn Cassady spent much more time with Kerouac than she did (she threw him out after a couple of months), their relationship was very intense for both of them. Kerouac changed her life, and Weaver kept careful track of the arc of his life over the years. Her book is an ongoing mediation of his life and work. Weaver reveals the literary Greenwich Village of the 50s and the publishing scene during that time. The book will benefit from renewed interest in the 50s (given the popularity of shows like Mad Men). This book will be embraced by Beat fans based on the never-ending fascination with Kerouac’s life. And, endorsements are coming in from Joyce Johnson, Carolyn Cassady, Ann Charters, David Amram and others well-known for their involvement with the Beat. "-New York Post "Helen Weaver’s book was a revelation to me! … This is the most graphic, honest, shameless, and moving documentary of what the newly liberated women in cities got up to-how they lived, loved, and created. Who knew? It is time they did! And here’s how."-Carolyn Cassady "Weaver recreates the excitement of a time when things were radically changing and shows us what it was like living with an eccentric genius at the turning point of his life. Eventually she asks Jack to leave but they remain friends, and over the years her respect for his writing grows even as Kerouac's reputation undergoes a gradual transition from enfant terrible to American icon. She comes to realize that by writing On the Road he woke America up-along with her-from the long dream of the fifties. And the Buddhist philosophy that once struck her as Jack's excuse for doing whatever he liked because 'nothing is real, it's all a dream' eventually becomes her own." "Helen Weaver's memoir is a riveting account of her love affair and friendship with Jack Kerouac. She is both clear-eyed and passionate about him, and writes with truly amazing grace."-Ann Charters Helen Weaver has translated over fifty books from the French of which one, Antonin Artaud: Selected Writings (Farrar, Straus and Giroux ) was a Finalist for the National Book Award in translation in 1976. She is co-author and general editor of the Larousse Enyclopedia of Astrology and author of The Daisy Sutra, a book on animal communication. She lives in Kingston, New York.

• Autore: Helen Weaver
• Anno edizione: 2014
• Editore: City Lights Publishers
• Formato: EPUB2 con Adobe DRM
• Compatibilità: Tutti i dispositivi (eccetto Kindle)
• Layout: Reflowable
• EAN: 9780872866447

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