Showing results for "Jack" in Biographical Fiction

Driven mad by three years of endless telegrams, phonecalls, mail, reporters and snoopers in the wake of his hugely successful novel On the Road, Jack Kerouac, 'King of the Beats', needs peace, quiet and sobriety: surrounded and outnumbered he has to 'get away to solitude again or die'. Amidst the wild beauty of the Californian landscape, Kerouac struggles to come to terms with his own myth and its malign impact upon his life.

Kevin O’Donnell is a beacon of such indomitable spirit, grappling with life’s relentless waves that seek to subdue him. In the turbulent era of mid-20th century, the world could be a harsh, unforgiving place for a young Irish lad. Yet, within Kevin lies a burning desire to carve out his niche, to transcend the barriers that life hurls his way and grasp the reins of a fulfilling existence.

Jack Kerouac tells the story of Jack Duluoz, a French-Canadian boy growing up in Kerouac’s own birthplace, the dingy factory town of Lowell, Massachusetts. There, Doctor Sax, with his flowing cape, slouched hat, and insinuating leer, is chief among the many ghosts and demons that populate Jack’s fantasy world. Deftly mingling memory and dream, Kerouac captures the accents and textures of his boyhood in Lowell in this novel of a cryptic, apocalyptic hipster phantom.

Unique among Jack Kerouac’s novels, Visions of Gerard captures the scenes and sensations of earliest childhood, the first four years in the life of Ti Jean Duluoz as they unfold in the short, tragic-happy life of his brother, Gerard. Set in Kerouac’s hometown of Lowell, Massachusetts, childhood’s intensity, innocence, suffering, and delight unfold as Gerard interacts with animals, has visions of Our Lady in heaven, astonishes the priest in the church confessional, and observes his family as they laugh and drink and weep—that is, when he isn’t sick and confined to bed.

John Barleycorn is a novel about the enjoyment of drinking and the struggles of alcoholism.

Briarhill to Brooklyn is a work of creative nonfiction, in which I tell the story of my Irish family’s journey from County Galway on a coffin ship named Cushlamachree. Their destination was Brooklyn.

For more than three decades, Yugoslavia's history played out in the life of one man. That man was Josip Broz Tito. The fictional autobiography of a regime insider, K. Balej's thoroughly researched novel provides a revealing insight into the emergence and functioning of the Yugoslav socialist system from the time of the Vienna Congress in 1815 to Tito's own death in 1980. It is an immersive exploration of the changing nature of Tito's power and the fascinating symbiosis of man and state that Tito represents.

Originally published in 1965, this autobiographical novel covers a key year in Jack Kerouac’s life—the period that led up to the publication of On the Road in September of 1957. After spending two months in the summer of 1956 as a fire lookout on Desolation Peak in the North Cascade Mountains of Washington, Kerouac’s fictional self Jack Duluoz comes down from the isolated mountains to the wild excitement of the bars, jazz clubs, and parties of San Francisco, before traveling on to Mexico City, New York, Tangiers, Paris, and London.

This is a story of philosophy, identity, and the powerful grip of travel, written by an iconic American author at the height of his fame, after spending ten days in France searching for his French heritage. Was the satori handed to him by a taxi driver, a waiter, a monsieur with a dazzlingly beautiful secretary, or while feeling fearful in the foggy streets at 3:00 a.m.? Or was it when hearing a requiem by Mozart in an old church, seeing trees in the Tuileries Garden, or while walking on a bridge over the River Seine?

Theo Miller is 14 years old, bright and ambitious, when he steps off the train into the simmering heat and uproar of 1920s Nairobi. Neither he nor his earnest younger sister, Maud, are prepared for the turbulent mix of joy and pain their new life in Kenya will bring. Their father is Director of Kenyan Railways, a role it is assumed Theo will inherit. But when he meets enchanting American heiress Sylvie de Croÿ and her charismatic, reckless companion, Freddie Hamilton, his aspirations turn in an instant.

Jack London'ın kendini anlattığı Martin Eden'in yayınlandığı yıllarda, London zaten çok ünlü bir yazardı. London farklı sınıflar arasındaki zihniyet ve değer farklarını gözlerimizin önüne sererken, statü ve parasal gücün Amerikan toplumundaki önemine işaret eder. Yazdıklarını zaten yaşamıştır yazar. Martin eğitimsiz genç bir işçiden, başarılı ve rafine bir yazara dönüşür. Hedefine ulaştığında ise motivasyonunu ve heyecanını çoktan yitirmiş, trajik bir sona doğru sürüklenmektedir artık.

On 28th June 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his morganatic wife, Sophie Chotek, were shot dead in broad daylight on a crowded street in Sarajevo. The murder of a relatively unknown archduke in a remote Bosnian city might well have been quickly forgotten were it not for the fact that this seemingly minor event ignited a spark that would explode into one of the bloodiest conflicts in history. Within four years, over sixteen million people from one hundred countries would lie dead on the battlefields.

Spring 1917 - the war has been raging for over two and a half years, and neither the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey) nor the Entente (Britain, France, Russia, and Italy) are any closer to a decisive victory. In Russia, the Revolution and enforced abdication of the Tsar has left the country in the shaky hands of the Provisional Government, but as the Bolsheviks begin to seize power, it is clear that behind the scenes, something rather sinister is occurring.

After the World War II, the Committee of Denazification of the Allies tried to determine the degree of responsibility of every German in the Nazi crimes as part of the campaign of democratization carried out in post-war Germany. This dramatic fiction recreates the trial of Leni Riefenstahl, a very famous filmmaker responsible for many documentaries praising the Nazi regime. Several scenes from her documentaries are used as evidence against her, claiming they were instrumental as propaganda tools for the regime.

Los subterráneos es una de las mejores novelas de Jack Kerouac; en ella se precisa su voluntad de llevar a cabo una suerte de autobiografía literaria que será, al mismo tiempo, una crónica legendaria de la Generación Beat. En efecto, casi todo es aquí relato autobiográfico, "fraseado" con ese inimitable estilo sincopado que Kerouac aprendió escuchando en el Minton's de Nueva York a los grandes del bop. Al igual que Charlie Parker, Kerouac improvisa en torno a un tema, y escribe de la manera más flexible, adaptándose en cada episodio a las resonancias que le sugiere el momento.

Two decades before the Civil War, a middle-class farmer named Samuel Maddox lies on his deathbed. Elsewhere in his Virginia home, a young woman named Kitty knows her life is about to change. She is one of the Maddox family's slaves - and Samuel's biological daughter. When Samuel's wife Mary inherits her husband's property, she will own Kitty, too, along with Kitty's three small children. After Samuel's death, Mary decides to grant Kitty and her children their freedom and travels with them to Pennsylvania, where she will file papers declaring Kitty's emancipation.

Una de las obras capitales de Jack Kerouac, el escritor paradigmático de la Generación Beat. Ambientada en California, expone su descubrimiento del budismo y su primera ley, "la vida es sufrimiento", durante la época en que se sentía un fracasado al no encontrar editor para sus libros. Pero además de un modo filosófico de encarar el fracaso y de la búsqueda del auténtico significado –el Dharma– por parte de unos jóvenes desharrapados y febriles, Los Vagabundos del Dharma expresa la comunión con la naturaleza en la cima de altas montañas, la fraternidad y la poesía.

Part diary, part scientific journal, part detective story, part love story: The Case of Emily V is thoroughly post-modern in its deliberate blurring of the distinction between fact and fiction, its cavalier blending of literary genres. But Oatley's first novel also resembles old 19th-century literature. His characters are dynamic, his storylines complex and suspenseful, his social commentary broad and integral to the plot.

La historia sigue a Chun Ah Chun, un chino inteligente y astuto que vive en Hawái. A pesar de las numerosas adversidades y prejuicios que enfrenta debido a su origen étnico, Chun Ah Chun logra superar las expectativas y desafíos que se le presentan, demostrando su ingenio y habilidades. A lo largo del relato, Chun Ah Chun se embarca en una serie de aventuras y negocios, desde el cultivo de caña de azúcar hasta la inversión en tierras.

En esta obra, publicada en 1909, el autor mostro el retrato de un rudo marinero que quiere progresar, pero al tratar de dedicarse a escritor se encuentra con el fracaso continuo y el rechazo permanente, incluso de la mujer que ama. Pero al cambiar su suerte, y ser aceptadas sus obras, todos quieren congraciarse con el pero Martin Eden se ha cansado del mundo.