Unique among Kerouac biographers for his prodigious archival research, Paul Maher tells a magnificant American story of a small-town boy who loved books, created himself as a writer, and destroyed himself. You can spot-check a month or year in this rigorously chronological documentation, or, better, seat yourself for the whole inspiring, infuriating, appalling story. Taking his hint from Kerouac's famous scroll, the ruthlessly non-judgmental Maher unrolls a panorama where squalid settings are thronged by a gaudy, self-indulgent, yet profoundly creative literary generation held at bay by baffled editors, publishers, and critics.--Hershel Parker, author of "Herman Melville: A Biography"
