Description
By looking sympathetically yet realistically at the lives of five people who knew Kerouac intimately, Jones creates a new picture of the Beat legacy that foregrounds the "minor characters" and accurately depicts the heroism of their not-so-ordinary lives. Long before the trend of debunking Kerouac and the Beats had begun, Jones perceived that there were other stories to be told. Use My Name presents the saga of five people whose lives were joined, often in emotional or legal conflict, by their relationship with the same man, the King of the Beatniks.
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With this fascinating new book, Jim Jones debunks many of the myths surrounding the life and times of Jack Kerouac. Jones concentrates on those whose lives were most affected by Kerouac: daughter Jan Kerouac, wives Edie Parker, Joan Haverty, and Stella Sampac, as well as nephew Paul Blake Jr. Use My Name: Jack Kerouac's Forgotten Families takes its title from advice given to Jan during her second and final meeting with Jack, who encouraged her to profit from the surname she shared with the famous author of On the Road. Sadly, not one of these individuals so closely tied to Kerouac seems to have benefited from the connection, as Jones discovers in his in-depth interview with Jan. She discusses at length her 15 months as a prostitute, her own divorces, her hospitalization, and her life as an author, including a wild European book tour for Baby Driver. Although Kerouac is one of the most ?biographied” American writers of our time, Jones offers a new perspective on the King of the Beats and his generation, one in which formerly marginalized figures in the Kerouac story?particularly women?become strong, central characters. He also exposes the cut-throat wheeling and dealing that has plagued the Kerouac estate and that continues today as the various players do battle over the legacy of one of the counterculture's biggest idols.
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