Paperback, 111 pages
English language
Published Aug. 26, 1998 by Grove Press.
The Subterraneans is a 1958 novella by Beat Generation author Jack Kerouac. It is a semi-fictional account of his short romance with an African American woman named Alene Lee (1931-1991) in New York in 1953. In the novel she is renamed "Mardou Fox," and described as a carefree spirit who frequents the jazz clubs and bars of the budding Beat scene of San Francisco. Other well-known personalities and friends from the author's life also appear thinly disguised in the novel. The character Frank Carmody is based on William Burroughs, and Adam Moorad on Allen Ginsberg. Even Gore Vidal appears as successful novelist Arial Lavalina. Kerouac's alter ego is named Leo Percepied, and his long-time friend Neal Cassady is mentioned only in passing as Leroy.
Kerouac is too needy in this one. The writing is still authentically poetic, but you simply get bored of Kerouac's antics.
A pretty depressing love story, Leo is a very insecure man and he destroys his relationship with Mardou because of a dream he had. If only he told her at the time what he wrote down in this book.
This book is short but when you read it, it does feel like an epic, some much happens on so few pages.
The way this book is written makes it tough to read, I found it quite difficult to figure out who was saying what and sometimes who was actually speaking. (My English teacher would have been angry. Hehe)
I did enjoy the book but not as much as the Dharma Bums, still my fav Kerouac book.
