Offbeat Collaborating with Kerouac - Softcover

David Amram

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1560254602 ISBN 13: 9781560254607

Publisher: Avalon Travel Publishing, 2005

Synopsis

Now in a paperback edition, David Amram retraces in this engaging memoir the creative paths he followed through restless days and long, exhilarating nights with his collaborator and friend Jack Kerouac. With candor and humor, Amram illuminates the private side of Kerouac, his extraordinary intellect and his ardent pursuit of music and literature. Among the last of a generation that altered the style and substance of the arts in its time, Amram also celebrates in this wise and affecting book the renaissance of interest in Kerouac's work three decades after his death. Photographs are included. "[A] compassionate, firsthand portrait. "Eric P. Nash, The New York Times Book Review "...every bit as radiant as his enduringly popular first memoir, Vibrations. "Donna Seaman, Booklist "[A]n unpretentious, freewheeling festival of highly diverting tales. "Kirkus Reviews "[Offbeat] is most valuable for its narrative of the ongoing restoration of Kerouac's literary reputation. "Paul A. Bergin, St. Petersburg Times

About this title

Product Description

Rare Book

Review

(from first edition)
“David Amram is a national treasure and his memoir, Offbeat, is an account of how he got that way. It is a great rolling river of a book, packed with details of Amram’s relationships with the likes of Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. If you wanted the ‘inside’ story of the Beat movement, here it is. Like Amram himself it is vital and energetic and it sings. I envy anyone picking up this book: It’s almost as good as listing to Amram himself.”
―Frank McCourt

“David Amram is a musical prodigy with a genius for friendship. Offbeat tells an uplifting story of his close association with Jack Kerouac in vivid prose and riveting anecdotes. An essential new addition to the growing literature of the Beat Generation.”
―Douglas Brinkley

“This fascinating book must put PAID to the myth that Jack Kerouac was ever the King of the Beats or the Father of the Hippies. In Offbeat, we get to know many of the legendary painters, poets, musicians and film makers of the Fifties and Sixties, and get to know Jack Kerouac as well. Amram recounts his enduring friendship and artistic collaborations during Jack’s lifetime, and his continuing efforts on Kerouac’s behalf to the present time of his own incredible career and creative genius. What stories! A book for your library.”
―Carolyn Cassady

“Regarding Offbeat: Chaos brought together two extraordinarily gifted minds to form a comet which lit up the sky.”
―Kurt Vonnegut

“The conversations rang so true that I almost began to believe I had been sitting in the corner listening as Amram, Kerouac, Ginsberg and Corso talked, laughed and traded barbs over a bottle of wine.”
―Bill Morgan, from the new Foreword

"Offbeat challenges and dismisses the myth of a Beat Generation, replacing it with a riveting and heartfelt account of the community of artists of that era, and how they supported one another.”
―Publisher's Weekly

“A piece of pure entertainment that also reveals the individuality of Amram's friends and gives the Beat stereotype its walking papers.”
―Kirkus Reviews

“ ... The book includes some excellent photographs ... deepens understanding of the Beat milieu and the aspirations of its iconic figures. Recommended.
―CHOICE

Edition details

• Publisher: Avalon Travel Publishing
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1560254602
• ISBN 13: 9781560254607
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256