Visions of Cody by Jack Kerouac (1993)

I've enjoyed a lot of Kerouac on a fleeting basis - I was told 'On the Road' and 'Dharma Bums' were THE BOOKs to read. Lo and behold, it turns out those were just the commercial pop singles for an artist whose real masterpieces are the obscure deep album cuts.

My Desert Island Kerouac books are this and 'Doctor Sax,' for sheer aural sensual beauty. ( )

Read this many years ago, but it seemed to be a better, fuller, and more free treatment of some of the themes and characters of On The Road. Pure example of the Beat ideal of jazz-influenced writing with many thrilling, virtuoso passages and beautiful, lyrical moments.

Kerouac's supreme masterpiece. ( )

A work of flawed genius. Kerouac tries to hard to be spontaneous here, and the results are pretty muddled. ( )