Notoriety – DaneCobain.com

Title: Big Sur

Author: Jack Kerouac

Type: Non-Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 186

Rating: 4/5

Jack Kerouac – Big Sur

In Big Sur, we get some more of Kerouac’s reflections on his own life in his unique brand of stream of consciousness beat prosody. This one in particular focuses on his slightly later years, after the release of On the Road brought him notoriety, and follows the troubles with alcoholism that plagued both Kerouac and many of his friends.

A particular favourite for me was this little excerpt when he talked about his hangovers: “I feel like the most disgraceful and nay disreputable wretch on earth, in fact my hair is blowing in beastly streaks across my stupid and moronic face, the hangover has now worked paranoia into me down to the last pitiable detail.”

There’s just something about Kerouac’s writing style that’s both absorbing and super enjoyable. Sure, he might make you think, but I felt as though some of his maturity came into play here and added an extra element. There was more wisdom there from the older Jack Kerouac than in his earlier work.

Jack Kerouac

Click here to buy Big Sur.

Brian Bilston – You Took the Last Bus Home | Review

Title: You Took the Last Bus Home

Author: Brian Bilston

Type: Poetry

Page Count/Review Word Count: 240

Rating: 4*/5

Brian Bilston – You Took the Last Bus Home

Disclaimer: While I aim to be unbiased, I received a copy of this for free to review.

I have a lot of love for this book, and I was torn between giving it either a four or a five. It’s a tough call. Brian Bilston has been described as the poet laureate of Twitter, and his work is known for reflecting the society we live in and for experimenting with form by including poems that are laid out in Excel spreadsheets or other interesting formats.

I enjoyed the vast majority of the poems in this collection – and some of them I’d even seen before – but there were the odd ones here and there that I didn’t rate as highly. Overall, though, it’s rare for me to enjoy a book of contemporary poetry as much as I enjoyed this one, and it’s certainly made me think that Bilston’s fame/notoriety are well-deserved.

It’s also interesting that the author writes under an alias to keep himself anonymous. Bilston, then, is the Banksy of the contemporary poetry world, and it’s remarkable how much Bilston is able to convey with relatively simple language. It’s the same reason I like all of my favourite poets, and Bilston in particular has my attention now. I’ll be reading his next one.