Minor Characters: A Beat Memoir - Softcover

Johnson, Joyce

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0413775593 ISBN 13: 9780413775597

Publisher: Methuen Publishing Ltd, 2006

Synopsis

Joyce Johnson was part of the extraordinary circle that included Allen Ginsberg, LeRoi and Hettie Jones, Gregory Corso, Robert Frank, Willem de Kooning and Frank Kline, and was witness to the art and lives of these artists who formed the Beats, a movement that has now gained almost mythical resonance. She was living with Jack Kerouac when "On the Road" - his novel that seemed to encapsulate the spirit of the Beats - was first published, turning him into a celebrity. Johnson's book is a personal memoir and a summation of the times, a story of adolescent rebellion and a desire to choose a different life. She shows how the Beat women, in deciding to break the rules and leave home as unmarried young women in the 1950s, discovered the risks and the heady excitement of trying to live as freely as the rebels they loved. First published in the US in 1983, "Minor Characters" is an intelligent, insightful and sympathetic portrayal of the individuals who defined the 'Beat Generation' and a personal reflection on the hardship and elation of liberation.

About this title

Review:

"'This is the muses's side of the story, it turns out the muse could write as well as anybody.' Angela Carter 'Rich and beautifully written, full of vivid portraits and evocations... of the major beat voices and the minor characters, their women.' San Francisco Chronicle 'Minor Characters is an avowedly nostalgic portrait that captures the excitement, the strangeness and the often mis-directed and destructive energy of those lost days,' The Philadelphia Inquirer 'Realistic rather than flamboyant, [Johnson] succeeds in portraying the Beats not as oddities or celebrities but as individuals.' The New Yorker"

About the Author:

Joyce Johnson is the author of three novels: In the Night Cafe, Bad Connections, and Come and Join the Dance. Her work has been published in The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Harper's, The New York Times Magazine and New York. She is the winner of the 1983 National Book Critics Circle Award, first prize in the 1987 O. Henry Awards, and a 1992 NEA fellowship. She has taught creative writing for many years.

About this edition

• Publisher: Methuen Publishing Ltd
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0413775593
• ISBN 13: 9780413775597
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 268