Purchase

“This excellent critical collection . . . focuses on the novels in Kerouac’s Duluoz Legend cycle, but it also incudes articles on topics like Blackness, literary techniques, Buddhism, the presentation of women, the American milieu, global culture, Kerouac’s archive, and the role of memory in the ouevre. . . . Belletto’s collection is an indispensable contribution to the ever-growing field of Beat studies and a useful addition to American studies in general.” —Choice

Jack Kerouac is among the most important and influential writers to emerge from mid-twentieth century America. Founder of the Beat Generation literary movement, Kerouac’s most famous novel, On the Road, was known as the bible of this generation, and inspired untold people to question the rigid social and cultural expectations of 1950s America. And yet despite its undeniable influence, On the Road is only a small piece of Kerouac’s literary achievement, and there are now well over forty Kerouac books published. The centerpiece to this work is Kerouac’s multi-volume Duluoz Legend, named for his fictional alter-ego, Jack Duluoz, and comprising numerous books written over decades that together tell the story of Duluoz’s life and times. This volume offers fresh perspectives on his multifaceted body of work, ranging from detailed analyses of his most significant books to wide-angle perspectives that place Kerouac in key literary, theoretical, and cultural contexts.

For an interview with Belletto about The Cambridge Companion to Jack Kerouac, click here. Belletto discusses Jack Kerouac on The History of Literature Podcast.