Book of Blues
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Book Overview
Eight extended poems from the acclaimed author of On the Road and Big Sur--featuring an introduction by Robert Creeley Best known for his "Legend of Duluoz" novels, Jack Kerouac is also an important poet. In the eight poems collected in Book of Blues, Kerouac writes from the heart of experience in the music of language, employing the same instrumental blues form that he used to fullest effect in Mexico City Blues, his largely unheralded classic of postmodern literature. "In my system, the form of blues choruses is limited by the small page of the breastpocket notebook in which they are written, like the form of a set number of bars in a jazz blues chorus, and so sometimes the word-meaning can carry from one chorus into another, or not, just like the phrase-meaning can carry harmonically from one chorus to another, or not, in jazz, so that, in these blues as in jazz, the form is determined by time, and by the musician's spontaneous phrasing & harmonizing with the beat of time as if waves & waves on by in measured choruses."--Jack Kerouac These poems include: - San Francisco Blues
- Richmond Hill Blues
- Bowery Blues
- MacDougal Street Blues
- Desolation Blues
- Orizaba 210 Blues
- Orlanda Blues
- Cerrada Medellin Blues
Edited by Kerouac himself, Book of Blues is an exuberant foray into language and consciousness, rich with imagery, propelled by rhythm, and based in a reverent attentiveness to the moment.
- Richmond Hill Blues
- Bowery Blues
- MacDougal Street Blues
- Desolation Blues
- Orizaba 210 Blues
- Orlanda Blues
- Cerrada Medellin Blues
Edited by Kerouac himself, Book of Blues is an exuberant foray into language and consciousness, rich with imagery, propelled by rhythm, and based in a reverent attentiveness to the moment.
Format:Paperback
Language:English
ISBN:0140587004
ISBN13:9780140587005
Release Date:September 1995
Publisher:Penguin Publishing Group
Length:288 Pages
Weight:0.48 lbs.
Dimensions:0.7" x 5.1" x 7.7"
Age Range:18 years and up
Grade Range:Postsecondary and higher
Customer Reviews
4 ratings
what an excellent use of imagery!
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 25 years ago
this book has so many unique qualities to it, and they all focus so much on Kerouac's unusual lifestyle... the book, with it's so many chouruses is an inspiration!
Jack Kerouac's Book of Blues
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 26 years ago
Kerouac's Book of Blues is an important book for anyone interested in Kerouac's spontaneous style of writing. For those more familiar with his novels and prose Book of Blues will open a more pure and raw form of verse than even "On the Road". Kerouac was truly a poet at heart. To get the full effect of this book which reaaly needs to be read aloud to full experience I also highly recommend Kerouac's Blues & Haikus CD which contains him reading several of the poems in Book of Blues.
Book of Blues works together with Desolation Angels
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 26 years ago
Book of Blues is an important piece of writing that chronicles an important time in Kerouac's life and works well with Desolation Angels. As I read Desolation Angels, I noticed that Jack Duluoz makes references to various works of poetry as he moves through the book and Book of Blues contains many of those poems. Desolation Blues was written about his time on Desolation Peak and accompanies that section of the book well. You begin to understand Jack's thoughts and anxities better. Later Jack is in Mexico City writing Mexico City Blues but he also wrote Orizabo(I believe) at the same time, at least according to Desolation Angels. Orizabo Blues can be seen as the outakes or the preparaton from Mexico City Blues. Later on in the book, Jack Duluoz is back in Mexico City after his trip to Europe and during these times he wrote Cerrera Medellin blues. Other Blues not included in Book of Blues though mentioned in Desolatioin Angels are Washington, D.C. Blues and Tangier Blues which have yet to be published. Book of Blues is an important book to the Kerouac canon.
author well known during the'60's ; all ways had good conten
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 27 years ago
I first read Kerouac's writtings over 30 years ago. The content of this work is firm but is limited in it's scope and focus. The author usually slips into a tanghent that not many of us would comprehend unless we had lived in the 1960's.
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