Satori in Paris and Pic (B-541)

Rating:
Summary: A journey of Kerouac is explored
Review: "Satori in Paris" explores a trip to France by Mr. Kerouac. In it we vist many of the interesting people and places that Jack runs into during his odyssey of sorts of self exploration. If memory serves me right I think this may have been his last novel published. Like many of his other great works "Satori" perfectly captures the vibe and feel of the pre-sixties, pre-Vietnam era beat generation.

Rating:
Summary: Sad Drunken Ramblings
Review: There's no Satori here. No Dharma bums or Dharma either. Just the sad druken ramblings of a once great writer. Gone is the energy and excitement of On The Road and The Dharma Bums. And there's no interesting characters like Neal Cassady or Gary Snyder for Kerouac to bounce off of. Its just poor druken Kerouac wandering through France in an inebriated haze. And also this book was written in the mid sixties, the Beat Generation was well past its prime, already eclipsed by its progeny, the flower children. And unlike Allen Ginsburg, Gary Snyder and Neal Cassady, Kerouac was hopelessly out of touch with the times. And it shows. That's not to say that Satori in Paris is without interest, just that it pales in comparison with his earlier work. And Pic is an example of an interesting early experiment. I believe an early draft of On The Road, before he quite got his bearings and figured out how to write that masterpiece.

Rating:
Summary: The Soul of Kerouac
Review: This book provides the reader with the best chance of
exploring the roots of Kerouac's spitituality. Far too
often the beats are viewed as a bunch of intellectual
hedonists whose love for verse was equalled only
by their indulgence in the various permetations of
chemical abuse. The beats set the stage for the 60's,
and America's search for a true a national spirituality.
As "King of the Beats", Kerouac takes the reader into an
in depth analysis of what lay at the very heart of the

beat movement-the journey is the reward in and of itself.

Rating:
Summary: Satori is the experience of knowing
Review: This is by far Kerouac's most enlightening book. He expresses his deep emotion of the Buddhist culture. Satori comes only when the main character follows the Path of Enlightenment and the Four Noble Truths of Tibetian Buddhism. a must read for any Kerouac fan or anyone who wants to share the experience of Eastern wisdom and thought.