Go vs Jack Kerouac: Which Should You Read?

Go John Clellon Holmes · 1952 ★★★★☆ 3.8 311 pages · ≈ 5 h 46 m · Moderate

“"Last week I got the idea that the one aim of my intercourse with other people is to prevent them from noticing how brittle and will-less I have become," Paul Hobbes was writing.”

Go is a 1952 semi-autobiographical novel by John Clellon Holmes. (Holmes referred to the book as a roman à clef.) It is considered to be the first published novel depicting the Beat Generation. Set in New York, it…

Jack Kerouac Tom Clark · 1984 254 pages · ≈ 4 h 42 m · Moderate

All the components of the Jack Kerouac legend are here: the excesses of alcohol and drugs; the soul-searching; the characters - Neal Cassady and Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso and Lucien Carr, John Clellon Holmes and…