BEAT SCENE – ISSUE 70 – SPRING 2013

The latest issue of Beat Scene is out now and, as always, a must for readers of the Beat Generation.

Not surprisingly with the recent attention brought by the film adaptation of On The Road - and being Beat poster-boy - Jack Kerouac features heavily but there are also plenty of other articles and reviews including a look at “The Last Beat” Lucien Carr, Allen Ginsberg’s Heavy Soul Jell Roll recordings, and a beautiful piece on Carolyn Cassady. Inextricably linked to the Beats via her marriage to Neal Cassady and relationship with Kerouac Carolyn is still around. Resident in the UK for the past 30 years Alan Wilkinson’s article shows she’s now Anglicised to at least the degree of watching snooker on the telly and criticizing the England football team, “They don’t seem to move together”. 

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BEAT SCENE ISSUE 62

Charles Bukowski may be the cover star of the Beat Scene 62 but it’s the new nine page interview with Carolyn Cassady that steals the issue for me. She’s written and spoken many times about her husband Neal Cassady and lover Jack Kerouac but I’m never less than fascinated by their relationship. I still can’t grasp the hold Neal had over people – Carolyn in particular. Even his portrayal in On The Road isn’t flattering: a con-man and a rat who abandons a sick Jack in Mexico; and that’s without the bigamy and constant philandering she had to deal with. Maybe she was hip and I’m squarer than I’d care to admit.

Continuing the spouses theme, Richard Brautigan’s first wife Virginia Aste is also interviewed. There’s a good article about Kerouac and his time in Detroit with his first wife Edie Parker (who Carolyn memorably refers to as a weirdo and a nut case). Bukowski gets his coverage - reviews and extracts from a couple of newish books. Dan Fante writes about his father, John Fante, and fellow writers blacklisted by Hollywood during the 40s.

Loads of other stuff as usual within its 64 advert-free pages. Four pounds stirling.

www.beatscene.net