The Voice Is All, Joyce Johnson
The Voice Is All, Joyce Johnson
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The Voice Is All
The Lonely Victory of Jack Kerouac

Author: Joyce Johnson

Narrator: Carrington MacDuffie

Unabridged: 16 hr 50 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 09/13/2012

Synopsis

In The Voice Is All, Joyce Johnson—coauthor of the classic memoir Door Wide Open, about her relationship with Jack Kerouac—brilliantly peels away layers of the Kerouac legend to show how, caught between two cultures and two languages, he forged a voice to contain his dualities.  Looking more deeply than previous biographers into how Kerouac's French Canadian background enriched his prose and gave him a unique outsider's vision of America, she  tracks his development from boyhood through the phenomenal breakthroughs of 1951 that resulted in the composition of On the Road, followed by Visions of Cody. By illuminating Kerouac's early choice to sacrifice everything for his work, The Voice Is All deals with him on his own terms and puts the tragic contradictions of his nature and his complex relationships into perspective.

About Joyce Johnson

Joyce Johnson is the author of several books, including the National Book Critics Circle Award-winner Minor Characters, Missing Men, and Door Wide Open, with Jack Kerouac. She has written for Vanity Fair and the New Yorker and lives in New York City.

Reviews

Goodreads review by James on December 28, 2012

It's been a long time since I read biographical material about Kerouac. Joyce Johnson's book, The Voice Is All, is an examination by a writer and editor of how Kerouac developed the spontaneous prose style that brought him success as a novelist and poet as well as the spokesman--if reluctant--for wh......more

Goodreads review by robin on March 18, 2024

A New Biography Of Jack Kerouac This book received mixed reviews. I thought it good for the reasons given below. Joyce Johnson's "The Voice is All: The Lonely Victory of Jack Kerouac" (2012)offers a sympathetic internalized portrayal of Kerouac, the divisions in his personality, and his calling as a w......more

Goodreads review by Michelle on November 18, 2012

Impressive, enthralling – and probably Kerouac’s last wish. Just the compilation of this book is astounding. Hunting through all his letters, ceaseless journals, half written manuscripts, and the personal accounts and books of his friends and lovers – is a monumental task. The author Joyce Johnson re......more

Goodreads review by Susan on March 29, 2013

I'm kinda torn between two and three stars because I realize how well written and exhaustively researched this book is. I'd say you have to be a real Kerouac fan to want to know how he felt in all circumstances and how those feelings provided material for everything he wrote. Frankly, Scarlet, I jus......more

Goodreads review by Jim on February 23, 2013

In her introduction to “The Voice is All: The Lonely Victory of Jack Kerouac” Joyce Johnson warns against considering her biography of Jack Kerouac a definitive version, but after reading the book I guess I’ll do it for her. If there is such a thing as a definitive biography Johnson’s “The Voice is......more

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