Product Description

Of all his books, Doctor Sax was the one Jack Kerouac loved the most. He began writing it in 1948, but wrote the greater part of it in 1952, when he was staying in Mexico with William Burroughs. Told through the character of Kerouac's fictional alter ego, Jack Duluoz, the novel tells the story of his extraordinary childhood in Massachusetts. A clever and rebellious boy, playing among the river weeds and railroad tracks, going to the movies, reading pulp comics and watching cartoons, Jack creates an imaginary world of strange, new possibilities. Within this world lies the weird and wonderful Doctor Sax

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #599127 in Books
• Published on: 1992-05-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

Review
'Spooky and tender with stretches of sheer phosphorescent fantasy, Doctor Sax has a vigour and thirst for life. A real prize, one of the lost gems of modern literature.' Rolling Stone 'Duluoz is exuberantly profane and comfortably delinquent, and like any right-thinking twelve year old, he is a track addict. On cold winter mornings, he scribbles out racing forms and stages elaborate handicap races with marbles. Full of pinball prose, Doctor Sax is an elegy to the warm, safe smells of a tenement kitchen and the dark mysteries of a city neighbourhood. It is Kerouac's best book.' Time 'Vivid, moving and funny' Guardian

About the Author
Jack Kerouac was born in 1922 in Lowell, Massachusetts, the youngest of three children in a French-Canadian family. Having left college, he joined the merchant marines and began the restless wanderings that were to continue for the greater part of his life. His first novel, The Town and the City, was published in 1950. On the Road, although written in 1951 (in a few hectic days on a scroll of newsprint), was not published until 1957 - it made him one of the most controversial and best-known writers of his time. Publication of his many other books, among them The Subterraneans, Doctor Sax and Desolation Angels, followed. Jack Kerouac died in St. Petersburg, Florida at the age of forty-seven.

Customer Reviews

Someone lurks in the woods...
Kerouac claimed Doctor Sax to be his favourite amongst his many fine works and it is easy to see why. 'On the road' was the epitome of his road-trip stories and though each was a gripping read, you know pretty much what to expect. Doctor Sax, however, is one of the rare occasions where Kerouac chose to focus on another aspect of his life: his childhood.

Doctor Sax another chapter in the life story of familiar alter-ego Jack Duluoz. Jack keeps busy by playing imaginative games with his mates or by himself, growing up in his french-canadian family. As the many tales of fun and mischief unfold, mysterious accounts of the enigmatic Doctor Sax and Count Condu give an insight of the magical dreams and imagination of Jack, leading up to what is a fantastic ending.

The imagery in Doctor Sax is the key feature and of course, Kerouac is no stranger to writing like this. Though not quite as plot or event driven as 'On the Road' or 'Desolation Angels', this book more than makes up for its varying changes in pace by its colourful characters and purely fantastical sequences towards the end. Doctor Sax is Kerouac's masterpiece...

A masterpiece indeed!
I have to agree with the other reviewer, this is a masterpiece. Personally I love all of his work, but this and "Visions of Cody", are the real corkers.Spellbinding.