Satori in Paris and Pic


Book Description

Satori in Paris and Pic, two of Jack Kerouac's last novels, showcase the remarkable range and versatility of his mature talent. Satori in Paris is a rollicking autobiographical account of Kerouac's search for his heritage in France, and lands the author in his familiar milieu of seedy bars and all-night conversations. Pic is Kerouac's final novel and one of his most unusual. Narrated by ten-year-old Pictorial Review Jackson in a North Carolina vernacular, the novel charts the adventures of Pic and his brother Slim as they travel from the rural South to Harlem in the 1940s.




Satori in Paris


Book Description

From the renowned Beat writer, Kerouac’s colorful and meandering search for his family history, now reissued following his centenary celebration Satori in Paris is the semi-autobiographical tale of Jack Kerouac’s trip to France in search of his heritage. Beginning in Paris and moving west to Brittany, Kerouac traces the paths of his ancestors and explores his own understanding of the Buddhism that came to define his beliefs. From his familiar milieu of strangers and all-night conversations in seedy bars, to a pivotal cab ride in which he experiences Buddhism’s satori—a feeling of sudden understanding—Kerouac’s affecting and revolutionary writing transports the reader. Published at the height of his fame and showcasing his mature talent, Satori in Paris is a lyrical, rollicking tale of philosophy, identity, and the power and strangeness of travel.




Vanity of Duluoz


Book Description

Written in 1967 from the vantage point of the psychedelic sixties, Vanity of Duluoz is a fascinating portrait of the artist as a young man Originally subtitled "An Adventurous Education, 1935-1946," Vanity of Duluoz presents the formative years in the life of Jack Duluoz—Kerouac's alter ego—beginning with his high school experiences as a sporting jock in small-town New England and his time at Columbia University on a football scholarship. Just as Jack's glamorous new adult life begins, so does World War II, and he joins the US Navy to travel the world. The more he experiences, the more he realizes the limits of his former plans, and decides to and return to New York, where he collides with the start of the Beat movement, and a riot of drugs, sex and writing. Vanity of Duluoz was Kerouac's final work published before his death in 1969.




Pic


Book Description




Mexico City Blues


Book Description

One of the renowned Beat writer’s most formally inventive books, Mexico City Blues is Jack Kerouac’s essential work of lyric verse, now reissued following his centenary celebration Written between 1954 and 1957, and published originally by Grove Press in 1959, Mexico City Blues is Kerouac’s most important verse work. It incorporates all the elements of his theory of spontaneous composition and his interest in Buddhism. Memories, fantasies, dreams, and surrealistic free association are lyrically combined in the loose format inspired by jazz and the blues. Written while Kerouac was living in Mexico City, and with references to William S. Burroughs, Gregory Corso, and Bill Garver, this exciting book in Kerouac’s oeuvre is an original and moving epic of sound, rhythm, and religion.




Cartea vinurilor romanesti (The Wine Book of Romania)


Book Description

„Nu pot decât să-i fiu recunoscător dnei Marinela V. Ardelean pentru efortul său, mereu reiterat, de a face cunoscut profilul românesc al oenologiei europene. Cititorul, localnic sau străin, află tot ce nu ştia, sau ştia vag, despre un patrimoniu care îşi merită locul printre valorile protejate ale civilizaţiei noastre. Inventarul e amplu şi alcătuit cu acribie, autoarea are toate calităţile unui comunicator eficient: expertiză (globală şi circumstanţială), hărnicie inteligentă, profesionalitate pragmatică, farmec personal. Mai în glumă, mai în serios, ea reuşeşte, prin acest volum, ceea ce nu reu¬şeşte istoria contemporană: unificarea spaţiului românesc, consemnarea continuităţii dintre spaţiul de dincoace de Prut şi cel al Republicii Moldova. Avem ce bea, avem ce citi, avem ce visa. Un cuvânt de laudă şi pentru ţinuta grafică a cărţii: avem şi ce privi! Lectură plăcută! Noroc!“ – Andrei Pleșu „I can only thank Mrs Marinela V. Ardelean for her effort, always reiterated, to make the Romanian profile of European oenology known. The reader, local or foreign, finds out everything he did not know, or he barely knew, about a patrimony that deserves its place among the protected values of our civilization. The inventory is extensive and rigurous, the author has all the qualities of an efficient communicator: expertize (global and circumstantial), intelligent workmanship, pragmatic professionalism, personal charm. As a joke, but not really, she succeeds, through this volume, where contemporary history fails: the unification of the Romanian space, marking the continuity of the space between this side of the Prut and the Republic of Moldova. We have what to drink, we have what to read, we have what to dream of. A word of praise for the graphic outfit of the book too: we also have what to look at! Enjoy your reading! Cheers!“ - Andrei Pleșu




Tristessa


Book Description

Based on Jack Kerouac's own real-life love affair in Mexico City, this is the story of a man's ill-fated relationship with a woman he portrays with tenderness and dignity, even as her life spirals out of control "Each book by Jack Kerouac is unique, a telepathic diamond. With prose set in the middle of his mind, he reveals consciousness itself in all its syntatic elaboration, detailing the luminous emptiness of his own paranoiac confusion. Such rich natural writing is nonpareil in later half XX century, a synthesis of Proust, Céline, Thomas Wolfe, Hemingway, Genet, Thelonius Monk, Basho, Charlie Parker, and Kerouac's own athletic sacred insight. "This entire short novel Tristessa's a narrative meditation studying a hen, a rooster, a dove, a cat, a chihuaha dog, family meat, and a ravishing, ravished junky lady, first in their crowded bedroom, then out to drunken streets, taco stands, & pads at dawn in Mexico City slums." —Allen Ginsberg




Sake & Satori


Book Description

A previously unpublished sequel to Baksheesh and Brahman reports on the author's travels through east Asia and his five-month stay in Japan in the 1950s, during which he experienced local culture and witnessed the area's struggles with Cold War tensions and western values. 20,000 first printing.




Book of Dreams


Book Description

"In the Book of Dreams I just continue the same story but in the dreams I had of the real-life characters I always write about." Excerpt: WALKING THROUGH SLUM SUBURBS of Mexico City I'm stopped by smiling threesome of cats who've disengaged themselves from the general fairly crowded evening street of brown lights, coke stands, tortillas-Unmistakably going to steal my bag-I struggled a little, gave up-Begin communicating with them my distress and in fact do so well they end up just stealing parts of my stuff…. We walk off leaving the bag with someone-arm in arm like a gang to the downtown lights of Letran, across a field- Jack Kerouac (1922-1969) was a principal actor in the Beat Generation, a companion of Allen Ginsberg and Neal Cassady in that great adventure. His books include On the Roa, The Dharma Bums, Mexico City Blues, Lonesome Traveler, Scattered Poems, Visions of Cody, Pomes All Sizes, and Scripture of the Golden Eternity.




Satori


Book Description

Nicholai Hel-genius, mystic, and the perfect, formidable assassin-was first introduced to readers in Shibumi, the classic #1 bestseller by master storyteller Trevanian. Now critically acclaimed author Don Winslow continues Hel's story for the first time in this all-new, blockbuster thriller. Prepare to meet the world's most dangerous man . . . It is the fall of 1951, and the Korean War is raging. Twenty-six-year-old Nicholai Hel has spent the last three years in solitary confinement at the hands of the Americans. Hel is a master of hoda korosu, or "naked kill," is fluent in seven languages, and has honed extraordinary "proximity sense"-an extra-awareness of the presence of danger. He has the skills to be the world's most fearsome assassin and now the CIA needs him. The Americans offer Hel freedom, money, and a neutral passport in exchange for one small service: to go to Beijing and kill the Soviet Union's commissioner to China. It's almost certainly a suicide mission, but Hel accepts. Now he must survive chaos, violence, suspicion, and betrayal while trying to achieve his ultimate goal of satori-the possibility of true understanding and harmony with the world.