Vanity of Duluoz: Modern Classic: The Adventurous Education of a Young Man - Tapa blanda

‘“Vanity of Duluoz” is a loud-mouthed novel. Kerouac brags his way through his early football triumphs and boyhood friendships, bounces us through his experiences as schoolboy, student, sailor, social rebel. It's a frontal assault on life, a total abandonment to feeling that can take sentimentality in its loping stride and even score with it. What makes the book remarkable is not its rigour but the generosity of its protest. It is Kerouac's lack of resignation that gives the book its strength and dignity.’ Guardian

‘“Vanity of Duluoz” has a fierce, posturing energy.’ New Statesman

American football, war and the Beat way of life – a Kerouac classic.

‘Vanity of Duluoz’ is ‘a book about football and war’; for Jack Duluoz, Kerouac's alter ego, growing up in America in the 1930s, these are the forces that shape his life. Possessed of an extraordinary talent for football, Duluoz leaves his sleepy hometown on a sporting scholarship to Columbia University, New York. But just as the brilliant years of his ‘adventurous education’ begin, World War II intervenes.

For many, this would have been a catastrophe, but for Duluoz, his wartime experiences prove an inspiration. Joining the US Navy, wandering the world, Duluoz’s desire to live life to the full grows ever stronger. On his return to the USA, Duluoz is drawn into the nascent New York Beat movement. Now the real wild times begin, with writing, drugs and sex exploding into a sheer celebration of non-stop, riotous living...