Desolation angels
Desolation Angels is a semi-autobiographical novel written by Beat Generation author Jack Kerouac, which makes up part of his Duluoz Legend. It was published in 1965, but was written years earlier, around the time On the Road was in the process of publication. According to the book's foreword, the opening section of the novel is taken almost directly from the journal he kept when he was a fire lookout on Desolation Peak in the North Cascade mountains of Washington state. Much of the psychological struggle which the novel's protagonist, Jack Duluoz, undergoes in the novel reflects Kerouac's own increasing disenchantment with the Buddhist philosophy with which he had previously been fascinated.
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2recommend
6mentions
6people
2016–2026years
33% recommend50% neutral17% critical
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- A lot of people will say to start with the most well known stuff - Naked Lunch, On the Road. I never liked Naked Lunch much, but On the Road is still probably the best gestalt depiction of the post-war America that was smack in the middle of transitioning from post-depression NYC jazz to California hippie. Once you have a feel for what that time and context was, then the poetry makes more sense.
It's been a while, but I remember enjoying a lot the very early writings that were collected posthumously in Atop an Underwood, very easy to pick up arbitrarily. Other good ones - Desolation Angels, Dharma Bums, The Town and the City, Subterraneans, Satori in Paris. Those are all formative. There was another posthumous release And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks which was just a funny and ridiculous retelling of a murder of a friend.
Of course, lots of fun stuff from Bukowski, Gregory Corso, Gary Snyder, Phil Lamantia, John Clellon Holmes, Richard Brautigan, short stories and poems. Neal Cassady Collected Letters, 1944-1967 was probably my single favorite book back then. I'm sure I'm forgetting lots of stuff.
Oh and Dog https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hk8cMyCUnoo
- Or better yet, Desolation Angels, where a solid half of the book is fire watching
- Lots of faves, for various reasons, such as:
1. Comfort reading/nostalgia/guaranteed satisfaction (e.g. Mark Twain, Joseph Conrad, some of the SF greats)
2. Knowing there's more in there to absorb that I didn't get last time or have forgotten (e.g. various Neal Stephenson doorstops, biographies, history books)
3. Suspicion I didn't "get it" the first time and might appreciate it more now (e.g. not a personal example, but good summary - the famous line that "You read Don Quixote three times in your life. The first time it makes you laugh. The second time it makes you think. And the third time it makes you cry.". My personal example would be Code Complete!)
4. Plus, this being HN, straight technical books, which I reread to refresh and improve skils
The last book I reread was Kerouac's Desolation Angels, which actually for me was an interesting mix between categories 1 and 3.
- Perhaps more famous - Jack Kerouac, Desolation Angels.
- I read and loved "On The Road" but had to give up on Desolation Angels it just read like an incoherent stream of consciousness and felt like such hard going.
- Zen Mind, Beginners Mind The Dharma Bums - kerouac Desolation Angels - kerouac Wake Up - Kerouac Mindfulness in plain english 10% Happier Big Sur - kerouac
... Yeah I'm on a Buddhism and Kerouac kick right now
