Big Sur

By: Jack Kerouac, Aram Saroyan - introduction

Narrated by: Ethan Hawke

A poignant masterpiece of wrenching personal expression from the author of On the Road and The Dharma BumsIn this 1962 novel, Kerouac's alter ego Jack Duluoz, overwhelmed by success and excess, gravitates back and forth between wild binges in San Francisco and an isolated cabin on the California coast where he attempts to renew his spirit and clear his head of madness and alcohol. Only nature seems to restore him to a sense of balance. In the words of Allen Ginsberg, Big Sur "reveals consciousness in all its syntactic elaboration, detailing the luminous emptiness of his own paranoiac confusion."

Critic reviews

"In many ways, particularly in the lyrical immediacy that is his distinctive glory, this is Kerouac's best book . . . certainly, he has never displayed more 'gentle sweetness.'"
--San Francisco Chronicle

"Kerouac's grittiest novel to date and the one which will be read with most respect by those skeptical of all the Beat business in the first place."
--The New York Times Book Review

"Big Sur is so devastatingly honest and painful and yet so beautifully written....He was sharing his pain and suffering with the reader in the same way Dostoyevsky did, with the idea of salvation through suffering."
--David Amram

Kerouac forever

Ethan hawke did great in this - he sounds exactly how I would imagine the main character to sound. Very gravelly and American. The story is OK - Kerouac's prose and diction is what I stay for.

Dark

Well performed but dark story. Enough to make one consider give up drinking or at least be more careful.

Big Sur is beautiful.

Disgusting, green, madness is that. A warning to all the loafers to get out and do something useful.

It's Kerouac. 5 stars

E. Hawke was made to narrate Kerouac. What can I say, it's JK,
5 stars.

Frantic yet slow motion train wreck

You will be listening to an aging beatnick's descent into alcoholism, paranoia and despair. Well worth the listen but it's a long harsh ride you are on, so don't hold any illusions otherwise. Well worth the post "on the road" listen.