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Rating: 
Summary: Ultimately, A Disappointment
Review: I awaited this new biography with much anticipation, however felt rather let down in the end. This is clearly a work done with the blessing of the Sampas family in order to somewhat "rehabilitate" Kerouac's reputation. Maher comes across as not really caring for all those unsavory Beats like Ginsberg and Burroughs. They all ended up corrupting this callow youth from Lowell. He goes so far as to suggest that Ginsberg engaged in a smear campaign against Kerouac's reputation after Jack's death. Now I truly love and admire the work of Jack Kerouac...but come on!
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Addition
Review: I too am troubled by the Publishers Weekly review- which seems to have an agenda of its own!
This biography is very well sourced- and although perhaps not completely objective- why shouldn't one be a fan of what one is writings about? Many great popular historians are. David McCollough certainly appears to fall in love with every subject matter he writes about- and that provides in and of itself a unique spin, present here.
I frankly believe that there is room for scholarship by someone who actually has a clear knowledge and appreciation for Kerouac's roots...and Maher is very effective in dealing in particular with Jack's french canadien heritage; catholicism, and, yes, i would venture to guess, unlike his critics at PW- he can find Lowell on a map !
Maher has written an excellent "biography"- not an editorial opinion piece which provided this reader with a great starting point for delving further into the subject matter...
This book- in conjunction with the Brinkley book- will serve its purpose- not to airbrush history- but rather get beyond the stereotypes attributed to the Kerouac "name"- but far removed from the "individual" himself...
Rating:
Summary: A fascinating glimpse into a troubled life
Review: I'm amazed at the review by Publishers's Weekly listed above. If this is a
"gushing fan letter" from Maher to Kerouac, I'd hate to see what Maher would write
about someone he really didn't like!The greatest strength of this biography, for me, was the detail Maher provides
about Kerouac's daily life. So many biographies give you a series of highlights
and "events" but don't give you any sense of what the subject's life was like on
a day-by-day basis. This biography actually answers the questions "What did
Kerouac do when he got up in the morning? What did he do on an average day?" It
in fact destroys any heroic, romantic image you might have of Kerouac and replaces
it with a detailed image of who Kerouac really was---how he spoke; the way he approached writing;
how he conducted his relationships; his intense, desperate, peripatetic wanderings. I found it to
be a very unusual and interesting glimpse into a very, very troubled life.
Rating: 
Summary: Engaging and Unbiased Biography
Review: In Mr. Maher's new biography of Kerouac, all of the "myths" of the Beat icon have been underscored by letters and journal entries from on and off the road. Reading from these primary sources and letting Kerouac and company do the talking frees the readers from the biased interviews from Kerouac's contemporaries that have been the curse and blessing of most previous biographies (excepting Ellis Amburn's troubled but interesting Subterranean Kerouac). When ole' Jack is hiding in the riverbed under the sweep of flashlights from railroad security, it reads as if from a Kerouac novel. Later when he cooks cans of beans at a fire in a ditch, writes poetry in a San Francisco alley or bitterly complains of his publishers trying to edit his uncompromising prose, Maher makes plain his intention, to bring to the reader a glimpse into Kerouac's world, one of ambition, indigence and later, the harrowing descent into alcoholism. Though Maher does not relentlessly harp on Kerouac's addiction, he does bring out the tragic consequences; barroom beatings (which Kerouac does not defend himself), the drying up of his powder-keg creativity, and stretches of poverty only relieved by the occasional paltry royalty checks (most coming from foreign publishers).
As far as one of the reviewer's complaint about Maher's claim that the other beats set out to destroy Kerouac's reputation, it isn't quite as heavy-handed as that. Maher documents Ginsberg's (and only Ginsberg) frequent interviews in which he explicitly details Kerouac's alleged anti-Semitism, homo/bisexuality, and sordid relations with his mother. Maher contends that our premier beat poet only made these things known immediately after Kerouac's premature death in 1969. Ginsberg, it turns out, had been turned away from the Kerouac archives that he had relentlessly tried to take control of even into the 1990s. Now, I liek some of Ginsberg's poetry, but he did seem rather despicable and a bit of a lecher when I met him a few times in the eighties on into the early 1990's.
Lastly, with Amazon's sale price of a 550+ page hardcover for under $20.00, Maher's usage of unpublished material and the estate's own endorsement (I don't think they ever did that for anybody else . . .ever), it is worth a read for there are many details about the man's life that lie in the dark beforehand, particularly the formative development of Kerouac art.
Rating:
Summary: Very Detailed and Comprehensive
Review: This is a new biography about 500 pages long covering virtually all of the life of Jack Kerouac. It is written by a long time Kerouac "fan and student", a local Lowell, Mass. High-school teacher Paul Maher. Basically it is a sold and well written book.
I do have a couple of very minor problems about the biography concerning the level of detail. I think for the average reader it is almost too much detail about the non-creative side of his life, and it might have been better to have a bit less detail about his marriages and more details on his books and how they evolved and fit in with his life - but that is just my personal preference. That is why I am giving it 4 stars not 5. For example While Kerouac is at Columbia and at many other times the author gives us seemingly day to day accounts of what he did, or at a minimum week by week. It is a type of writing of overcompensation. But that is my view, some will like the reams of detail.
The book starts of with the Keouac family in New Hampshire around 1720 and a good part of the book explores his family and childhood, especially his Lowell years. The author has included a nice collection of black and white photographs taken of Kerouac during the different stages of his life including some family photos. Pictures of his family in Lowell with his older brother and younger sister make Jack appear almost normal. Later we see him in a bar scene and other scenes wearing for example a rustic plaid shirt and pictures with his wives.
The book appears to very complete and covers his parents and their problems, his creative and free spirit growing up, his scholarship to Columbia, football practice, interaction with the other writers, it describes his thoughts and what he reads and writes, his navy career, three marriages and his famous friends or associates. Of course we hear about Allen Ginsberg and Neal Cassady, the latter being his traveling companion in his famous novel On the Road. This was the famous "beat" movement - as most people are well aware. There are quite a few Ginsberg and Cassady references sprinkled through the book, and there are a lot of details on his marriages and divorces.
Jack led an intensive life, often clashing with authorities, traveled widely, wrote a lot, and moved a lot then died young at the age of 47 from a failing liver caused by too much drink. He left his mark in the literary world as a remarkable writer with a unique style. The book covers a lot of ground, both good and bad mainly on his personal life and especially his Lowell Massachusetts connection. The book is divided into many short chapters, each covering a short segment of his life, such as trips to Mexico, Denver, etc. and how he was changed by success - he did not like it. Having read some other biographies where I could compare at least two different authors of two different books, it is clear that any biography is dependent upon the author and his bias. Not being a Kerouac expert it is beyond my ability to and most readers to make those distinctions in the present case, but it seems accurate and relatively neutral in tone. It gives the good and some bad, and is not just a fawning positive fan book, and with much detail and comment.
Solid job, lots of detail for Kerouac lovers, 4 stars, possibly 5.
Rating:
Summary: Definitely Definitive!
Review: This is the sixth biography on Jack Kerouac that I've read and the one I like the most. Though not as comprehensive as "Memory Babe" by Gerald Nicosia (the longest biography on Kerouac thus far) or as analytical as "Subterranean Kerouac", this one was written with greater access to Kerouac's unpublished archives and new interviews by the author of people who knew Kerouac. The author did a respectful job on the subject, but doesn't gloss over the flaws of Kerouac, especially in the later chapters when Kerouac becomes an alcoholic nuisance to everyone who knew and loved him. Its a sad arc of a brilliant life ruined by his own success.
Ann Charters might get the credit for being the first biography of Kerouac, while Tom Clark has the easiest to read biography of Kerouac, but anyone who is a fan of the Beat Generation and the lead writer, should read this one, along with "Memory Babe." If you can stand revisiting Kerouac's life again and again from different perspectives, then try "Subterranean Kerouac" and Tom Clark's biography.
I also love the cover photo of this book and the way chapters are laid out, with various yet relevant quotes to start each chapter, and well thought out chapter titles. He does Kerouac justice, featuring well annotated end notes and other interesting items in an appendix. If you only read one Kerouac biography, this is the one you must read for a good understanding of Kerouac and his difficult life. There is only one major flaw in this book, and its a typo that I'm surprised no one caught before publication. Apparently, the publisher added a sentence or two that Paul Maher wrote to his editor or agent that should not have been included into the narrative. It was confusing at first, but when I figured out what probably happened, I just had to laugh. Even publishing companies aren't perfect about catching mistakes like that before publication.
Rating:
Summary: Journal Notes
Review: What this biography brings is a heavy reliance on Jack's journal entries heretofore not available to other biographers. But the assumption this is the definitive biography is a bit of a stretch...because the book is heavily influenced by those notes and the author's knowledge of Lowell where he has lived. Kerouac was above all a creative writer and obviously a great chronicler of events. Even so this does not mean his notes are any more definitive of his life than other information we have about him. He was always writing with foreknowledge or belief someone would be reading his writing. Important junctures in Kerouac's life are given short shrift (his complex emotional relationship with Neal and Carolyn for example) because they have already been written about in great depth and detail--- Instead, the holy grail of Keroauc's notes are determined to be the deciding factor. The author brings up Ginsburg's campaign against Kerouac after his death but never really explores that topic to its justified exposition. It was clear that Ginsburg changed his tune and his memories as time went on after Jack's death..(Look at the quotes in the Subterranean Kerouc). This book lacks capturing the essence and the importance of Kerouac as a writer. Tho Charters book is assumed to be flawed for lack of direct access to documented information, etc-- it still stands out there as trying to capture Jack's essence as well as describing sentinal events in his life. This biography is in need of better editing because events described in one chapter are repeated in another but in a slightly different time frame (such as the books Jack was reading at the time). Lastly, tho I would not dismiss this book like the Subterranean Kerouac, it is yet another take on the Kerouac who was as well hidden during his life as he is now.
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