Neal Cassady
City Lights
Oye! I thought I was down with the hipster beatnik generation, but I'm afraid Cassady lost me somewhere on the streets of Denver. To say this was a difficult read would be an understatement. I struggled, managing only two or three pages at a time. I started the book on January 3 and just finished Friday night, January 15...and it is only 222 pages!(just to prove I am not an idiot, I picked up The Great Gatsby Saturday and finished Sunday morning...and Saturday is "chore" day!)Anyway, when I got to the After-Word by Carolyn Cassady, Neal's wife and also a writer, I realized I was not alone. She explained he was influenced by Proust when writing The First Third which made reading it an "uphill battle". (note to self: don't read Proust, it is beyond your reading comprehension level and you will not like it.) Because the "Other Writings" were from an un-Proust-influenced period, I decided to read the remainder of the book. These stories and letters, even when left unfinished, were very enjoyable. I would have like to have read more. So, it wasn't so much content of The First Third that didn't agree with me, but the style of writing. Anyway, I finished it. On to the next...The Great Gatsby will be reviewed tomorrow.
