Kerouac Book

The definitive biography of Jack Kerouac. Helps dispell the myth of Kerouac as a total free spirit and liberated beatnik who helped pave the way for the sixties. Rather, it shows him to be the extremely conflicted man that he was, caught between two opposing value systems that he could not reconcile within himself and that eventually destroyed him, leaving him to retreat into isolation, alcoholism, and closed-mindedness at the end of his unfortunately short life.
I recommend paring this reading with "Ginsberg: A Biography" to get a complete portrait of the man, although the light shines on the Kerouac's torment and self-destruction even more harshly in the Ginsberg bio, to the point where it becomes depressing.