Jack Kerouac by Harry Russell Huebel (review)

Book Reviews291 expectation for the meter. Five rhetorical accents (/) act as isochronous stresses (V) coming at roughly equal time intervals, helping to define the ideal line, as in the first line of the passage above: V / \J/ ,J / u / U S Iambic meter runs along like this When an actual rhythm makes other syllables as strongly accented as the timekeeping stresses in the ideal meter, the ideal time pattern must be preserved. The initial stress in each spondee issimply a rhetorical accent, not an isochronous accent. (Scansion is mine in this paragraph.) Pentameters will have five syllables More strongly stressed than other ones nearby Ten syllables all told, perhaps eleven. Evidence that time as well as number of accents and sequence of stress-slack pattern really does play a part in English accentual-syllabic verse is provided by the fact that one may use the same words in a line of anapestic trimeter or iambic pentameter. Hollander provides the line; the scansion is mine, as numberofaccents, sequence of stress-slack, and timing change: wv V w w ^ w w y Rushing by between cars of a train Rushing by between cars of a train Hollander's omission of the role of time as a significant factor in accentualsyllabic and accentual English verse diminishes the accuracy and effectiveness of what is otherwise a very useful, entertaining guide for students. MARJORIE J. LIGHTFOOT Arizona State University Harry Russell Huebel. Jack Kerouac. Boise, Idaho: Boise State University Western Writers Series, no. 39, 1979. 48p. Though best known for his depiction of the "Beat Generation" and for his celebration of the myth of the American West, the late novelist and poet Jack Kerouac is also becoming recognized as one of the more important "FrancoAmerican " authors of the United States. This group includes writers born in New England of French-Canadian ancestry whose works, whether written in French or English, reflect the social and religious ethos of an increasingly self-aware ethnic community. (Another prominent novelist of the same background writing in English is Grace Metalious.) Kerouac grew up in "Little Canada," the French-Canadian neighborhood in the mill town of Lowell, Massachusetts. As Professor Huebel rightly points out, the Catholic and matriarchal ambiance of his childhood remained a constant influence 292ROCKY MOUNTAIN REVIEW in his personal life and, along with his cult of the West, one of the major poles of his literary inspiration. In some of his best-known novels, like The Toum and the City, Doctor Sax, and Visions o/ Gerard, Kerouac drew heavily on memories ofhis family and childhood milieu, for which he maintained a deeply-felt nostalgia throughout his wanderings in California, the Northwest, and Mexico. Through his contact with the San Francisco literary avant-garde, he was greatly influenced by the Buddhist doctrines of suffering and the transcendence ofit through self-discipline. Yet he was able to reconcile this philosophy of life with the Catholic beliefs to which he held. One of the most interesting facets ofHuebel'sstudy is his tracing ofthe evolution of the Western myth in Kerouac's works. The letter's initial exaltation ofthe restless freedom, individualism, and also gentle humanity which he identified with the West in such works as On the Road and Visions o/ Cody eventually gave way to the anguished disillusionment of Lonesome Traveler and Big Sur. These late works reflect his own increasing despair and disappointment with American life. As in his earlier novels, his personal experiences were the principal source of his "spontaneous prose." Despite the limited space in which he had to work, Huebel has written a highly comprehensive and revealing overview of Kerouac's life and works. The commentator's obvious sympathy for his subject has produced valuable insights into Kerouac's novels and poems without dimming his critical awareness of the writer's literary shortcomings. JAMES P. GILROY University of Denver Rosemary Lloyd. Baudelaire's Literary Criticism. Cambridge: University Press, 1981. 338p. One of the interesting features of Lloyd's book is the appendage on the bibliography of contemporary articles, mostly from 1849 to about 1863 (pp. 306-330), which provides the ambiance for an evaluation of Baudelaire's critical works. Lloyd's book is divided into...