The Monkey King's Used Primate Emporium and Book Reviews

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Jack Kerouac, "The Town and the City"

Started April 2 � Finished April 7, 2002; 499 pages. Posted 08 April 2002

Christ, I am ill. Ill, ill, ill. I feel awful.

Good thing this book fell into the �Good Kerouac� category, and I guess there�s a reason: it�s his first novel, so he was more refined and meticulous in plot and structure unlike after he hit the big time and subsequently hit the bottle, thus beginning his incoherent babbling.

My impression of Kerouac books in his later years:

�Rain, rain, rain. Nothing to do, pretty much. Yup. Yepper, pepper, doodly-do. Rain, rain-er, rain, it�s a-raining on Jane, it�s a plain bane, citizen kane. Bum-de-dum, boing boing boing boing boing boing! Can you believe I get paid for this? And by the way, where�s my check?�

Perhaps there�s a cut off point that somebody can warn me about on what to pick up. Until then I just have to keep my fingers crossed when I get one of his books.

Town and the City, I think (though I�m a little woozy right now), has the highest amount of central characters that I can remember out of anything I�ve read by Kerouac so far, Usually he has two or three people, and others fade in and out, probably because his booze-addled brain can�t keep track of more than that.

There are at least six mainstay characters in this book and probably more like nine (as I said, I am a little woozy). But he managed to divide it all pretty well, and keep it interesting. Unfortunately, as ill as I am, I can�t help but notice that I just finished a book that uses death to tie it all up at the end.

Great. If I die in my sleep tonight, I want to be buried with all my possessions.


Rating: Worth Used Prices.

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