Visions of Cody
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| Visions of Cody | |
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| Author | Jack Kerouac |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Novel |
| Publisher | New Directions |
| Publication date | 1960 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 448 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-14-017907-0 |
| Preceded by | Tristessa (1960) |
| Followed by | Lonesome Traveler (1960) |
Visions of Cody is a novel by Jack Kerouac, perhaps his most stylistically free and varied. It was written in 1951-1952, and though not published in its entirety until 1973, it had by then achieved an underground reputation. Since its first printing, Visions of Cody has been published with an introduction by Beat poet Allen Ginsberg titled "The Visions of the Great Rememberer."
Like nearly all of Kerouac's works, Visions of Cody involves a "mythologizing" of his life, here as "Jack Duluoz", renaming characters and imposing grander themes on actual events while rapturously describing the mundane around him. It is also heavily focused on his perception of and relationship to Neal Cassady, renamed "Cody Pomeray."
The first section of the book is essentially a collection of short stream-of-consciousness essays, which Kerouac called "sketches", many simply describing elements of Dulouz's (Kerouac's) post-World War II New York City environment, from the texture and smells of a lunch counter to St. Patrick's Cathedral, or minor events like the decision to masturbate in a public restroom—all interlaced with Kerouac's internal dialogue. Along the way through these descriptions, Dulouz meanders towards a decision to go visit Cody in San Francisco.
The third section consists mainly of the transcription of taped conversations between Kerouac and Cassady (and occasionally "Evelyn"—Cassady's last wife, Carolyn) that extended over five nights as they smoked marijuana. This is followed by a brief section entitled "Imitation of the Tape," a writing experiment by Kerouac in which he attempted to work from the spontaneity and speech patterns of the tape.
Some of Visions of Cody is a fast-forward recapitulation of the events described in On the Road, which was also about Kerouac and Cassady.
[edit] Character Key [1]
"Because of the objections of my early publishers I was not allowed to use the same personae names in each work." [2]
| Real-life person | Character name |
|---|---|
| Jack Kerouac | Jack Duluoz |
| Bill Cannastra | Finistra |
| Lucien Carr | Julien Love |
| Carolyn Cassady | Evelyn |
| Neal Cassady | Cody Pomeray |
| Hal Chase | Val Hayes |
| Duke Chungas | Duke Gringas |
| Henri Cru | Deni Bleu |
| Bill Garver | Harper |
| Allen Ginsberg | Irwin Garden |
| Diane Hansen | Diane |
| Luanne Henderson | Joanna Dawson |
| Al Hinkle | Slim Buckle |
| Helen Hinkle | Helen Buckle |
| Jim Holmes | Tom Watson |
| John Clellon Holmes | Tom Wilson |
| Herbert Hunke | Huck |
| Frank Jeffries | Dave Sherman |
| David Kammerer | Dave Stroheim |
| Jerry Newman | Danny Richman |
| Edie Parker | Elly |
| Allen Temko | Allen Minko |
| Bill Tomson | Earl Johnson |
| Ed Uhl | Ed Wehle |
[edit] References
- ^ Sandison, Daivd. Jeck Kerouac: An Illustrated Biography. Chicago: Chicago Review Press. 1999
- ^ Kerouac, Jack. Visions of Cody. London and New York: Penguin Books Ltd. 1993.
- 1960. Visions of Cody ISBN 0-14-017907-0
[edit] External links
- A gallery of Visions of Cody book covers and history of publication
- Neal Cassady's official site authored by his family and updated monthy
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