Unfortunately, The Beats: A Graphic History didn't do it for me. It really should be called "Kerouac, Ginsburg, Burroughs, and The Less Important Ones." In less than 200 hundred pages it simply tries to do to much, and it's obvious Piskor isn't too blame here as much as the writers were.
There's some good stuff here though, and as an easy read it certainly wouldn't kill anybody to pick this up. The definite highlights come in the second half with Joyce Brabner and "Beatnik Chicks."
As our understanding of The Beats continues to grow, warts and all (Kerouac became a staunch conservative later in life who always hated women, Burroughs literally murdered his first wife) this feels like a missed opportunity. (Although the section on Diane di Prima is also good.)
I picked up a big ol' chonker of a reader put together by Ann Charters when I was in college, "Beat Down to Your Soul," and it was a couple years old even though, so I think it must easily be 20+ years out of date, but it was a really thorough look at "the less important ones." (And I only got around to finishing it...last year. Oop.) It also included the transcript of a panel discussion with di Prima and others about Beat women, which was pretty interesting.
ReplyDeleteI'd never really heard of Hettie Jones before (Amiri Baraka's wife) so that was worth it!
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