Baby Driver

Rating:
Summary: SHEESH!
Review: Alright, this book was RIDICULOUS! Jan, the main character, was a mess... the complete cliche of needy messed up women with dependency and self-esteem issues. I admit, her father was a bum, her mother was a bit spacy, but it was just redundent- one dumb decision after another. SHe was clearly selfish and clueless, I felt the need to slap her into reality several times during the course of my read. Spiraling into one disasterous episode of drug abuse, sex, and stupid relationships after another; her life never changed, it remained in a constant state of scandal. Worst of all was that she did nothing to better her situations no matter how much help she was offered. I was very unimpressed and annoyed. I expected better! Gosh...Jan made me mad... were she still alive I would right her a letter to inform her of how idiotic she was. The only good part of the whole entire book was when she was living in mexico. However, in some sick way it was rather enjoyable. It reminded me of the tommy lee and pamela anderson porn, so stupid that you laugh at them and feel so glad your life is much less pathetic. I recommend it if you ever want to feel better about your own life.

Rating:
Summary: Jan Kerouac copes living without her father's love.
Review: Jan Kerouac lives with the neglect and unreturned love of her father. The special relationship between Jan and her mother, Joan, can be seen throughout the book. Jan Kerouac's writing style is similar to her father, Jack Kerouac. However, the basis for her writing is not "a love for her America" but rather an innate desire to survive through a difficult childhood and misfortunate coming of age. The author's brutal honesty may suprise the reader. It will be difficult to read or look at Jack Kerouac the same after reading this book. This is a must read for any curious beat reader.

Rating:
Summary: If her father wasn't . . .
Review: Jan Kerouac only saw her father twice or maybe three times in her life. Of all the things Jack Kerouc was, he wasn't a father to Jan at all. His direct inpact on her life beyond his name was minimal.
I'm not sure what makes this story more compelling than other memoirs of people who abused themselves and were abused by others. There seems to be a voyeuristc appeal to reading a story like this. It is interesting but you somehow you feel a tad perverted while reading it.
The annoying part of the book is her transparently flagrent use of adjectives to try and cop the flavor of her father's writing style. Her use of "mad" (I lost count) especially tripped me up and reminded me- I've read "Kerouac" and this is no "Kerouac".

Rating:
Summary: one of the greatest semi-autobiographical books ever written
Review: Jan Kerouac, to me filled a void with her book that had always been left after having read her fathers work. I was able to appriciate Baby Driver not just as an enjoyable read but also really relate to to it. Comparisons to Jack Kerouac aside, the engrossing story and the unique way in which Ms.Kerouac presented the sequence of events in her life as the events and not as the "sequence" were what made me love this book. My own copy of this book is in horrible repair, the cover taped together, pages still glued to one another in various sized clumps yet none of the clumps are actually attached to the cover itself any more. I've been looking for a new copy for years. Even the City Lights bookstore failed to turn up anything. While the old jacket cover was more endearing I'm looking forward to a new copy, so that I can once again share this book with friends. As is usually the case with the works of so many other women writers, this book has been unnoticed by most, yet is greatly enjoyed by the few of us lucky enough to stumble on to it.