"The quintessential hipster turns out to a be a guy whose hallmarks are tenderness, bewilderment, and yearning."
–Time "A story of self-invention, perseverance, and breakthrough. . . . The traditional rap against Kerouac–that he was a sort of half-baked dopehead primitivist who prized sensation over sense–crumbles on a reading of his journals. . . . What Kerouac wanted most, these journals reveal, was to dig down into the dark American earth as his heroes Twain and Whitman had and turn up his own rich shovelful of truth."
–Walter Kirn, The New York Times Book Review "A must read for anyone who has an interest in Kerouac and the Beats."
–Johnny Depp