Go: A Novel | 
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| Editorial Review / Publisher's Information:
Product Description
The novel that launched the beat generation's literary legacy describes the world of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and Neil Cassady. Drafted two months before Jack Kerouac began On The Road, Go is the first and most accurate chronicle of the private lives lived by the Beats before they became public figures. In honest, lucid fictional prose designed to capture the events, emotions, and essence of his experience among the Beats, Holmes describes an individualistic post–World War II New York where crime is celebrated, writing is revered, and parties, booze, discussions, drugs, and sex punctuate life. The most tentative and conservative of the Beats, Holmes's intelligent and sensitive voice also details the pressures and regrets that his lifestyle gave birth to. With portraits of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Neil Cassady, William Burroughs, this first novel about the Beat Generation gives us a peek into what it meant to be a Beat before the term had ever been used. "... still one of the best novels about the Beat Generation ... brilliant and important."—The Los Angeles Free Press " I want to write to you about ... your book. You did the honest thing, the big thing, the good thing."—Jack Kerouac "Go signaled the start of something new in American literature. A generation with a new consciousness had found its voice..."—Ann Charters
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Customer Reviews:
• The First Beat Novel Rediscovered 14 November, 2001
"Go," generally acknoweldged as the first of the Beat Generation novels, was Holmes' first novel and it shows many of the typical flaws of the first major work of a talented artist. The tone is incosistent, the plot tends to wander, and the first half the book has a tendency to drag. That said, "Go" is still a worthwhile novel. Much as his friend Jack Kerouac would later do, Holmes essentially records his life as an aspiring writer living on the fringes of the postwar New York underground. Under various aliases, such familiar characters as Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and Neal Cassady wander through the book. In its loose, episodic fashion, "Go" tells the story of a young writer who, while desperately trying to complete his first novel, watches his friends and wife dance through a decadent society, fueled by their own desire to say something original in a world that seems to fear and despise anything less than the purely conventional. Its a familiar plot but Holmes truly manages to capture both the excitement and the fear that goes with being both young and undiscovered. This a book that will be easily understood by anyone who has ever been convinced that they, for whatever reason, have been blessed with the ability to see both the beauties and the horrors of modern life that the rest of the world seems to safely ignore. As well, the book serves as a sad lament for both the promise and the ultimate fate of the original members of the Beat Generation. Though Holmes couldn't have realized it at the time, some of the book's most powerful scenes comes from having the knowledge of the ignominous fates that await characters like Gene Pasternak (Jack Kerouac) and Hart Kennedy (Neal Cassady) once they find the success that they are so desperately seeking. Even if uneven, it makes for an exhilirating read that, in the wonderful final chapter, truly does leave the reader feeling as if he has -- for a moment -- been transported back to the New York of the 1950s, when it truly seemed that these fatally flawed geniuses held the future and the salvation of American literature in their hands. Though he is usually credited with both coining the much maligned term "Beat Generation" as well as writing "Go," the first truly Beat novel, John Clellon Holmes has long been overshadowed by more experimental contemporaries like Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and William S. Burroughs. As Holmes himself acknowledged in personal interviews and this autobiographical novel, he was always on the fringe of the main Beat group -- i.e., a somewhat conservative, responsible intellectual trying to make a name for himself amongst a group that prided itself on being neither conservative nor responsible. Holmes is one of the few important Beat figures to never figure importantly into any of Kerouac's novels and his writing style was far more conventional than those of the better known Beats. As a result, "Go" has too often been unjustly ignored by modern-day adherents to the Beat Generation. This is unfair because "Go," though certainly imperfect, is still a valuable look at these future mythological figures before they become legends and is an entertaining work on its own.
- Reviewed by customer ID: AZ1UFPNARPZD2
• Clarification 03 June, 2000
Just a clarification of the synopsis offered by amazon (or newsweek) above. Although Go was published in 1952,5 years before On The Road, by Jack Kerouac, Kerouac had actually written On The Road in 1950 and it took him 7 years to get it published. Part of the problem was he had to get signed releases from everyone in the book, himself. Also, he had to change the names of towns, etc. There was a bit of tension between Holmes and Kerouac, but for the Beat scholar, Kerouac's novel can't be touched. On The Road stands alone. However, to be fair, and see another's view of things, Go is a fine book as well.
- Reviewed by customer ID: AJE3ORLD3GTSW
• Stop! And Read This Book 12 November, 2000
Whenever the immortal giants are discussed and associated with The Beat Generation the trinity of Kerouac, Ginsberg and Cassady top the list. After reading "Go" by John Clellon Holmes I feel he deserves some recognition. His story follows 4 major characters that howl through early 50's New York along with a cast of minor junkies, addicts and Hobbes' wife who can't decide what she wants. From smoky jazz clubs like The Go Hole and all night "tea" parties Hobbes(holmes), Pasternak(kerouac), Stofsky(ginsberg) and Kennedy(cassady) face life's situations and decisions with actions and reactions that portrayed most everyone who would become what is known as "The Beat Generation." And, as we all know, that was really the beginning of all that is hip, cool, far-out and trendy.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A3DTPBHCZ971SL
• Early Beat Chronicles 20 January, 2002
The author has been generally ignored as to his place in the formative years of Beat-O-Roma, and this book becomes a good background check on his impressive "credentials". He certainly can't write with that jazz laced pen which Keroauc used to set the tone of beat writings, but his story really sheds a lot of light upon the struggles which this anarcistic movement bestowed upon its followers. All in all, if you like beat culture you will probabley find this to be an enjoyable read.
- Reviewed by customer ID: AYABUEJC2SEHQ
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