Reviews for The evening sun turned crimson

The average rating for The evening sun turned crimson based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-12-04 00:00:00 John Falocco The Evening Sun Turned Crimson is a collection of memoirs from the life of Herbert Huncke. He knew Ginsberg, Burroughs, and Kerouac during the early days in NY. Huncke landed in NY when he was 15 and turned to making a living as a hustler (male prostitute) at Times Square. The City didn't steal the kid's innocence; that was long-gone already. He worked that corner until the cops convicted him of being a creep and shooed him away, as Ginsberg remarked. He didn't like the word "beatnik," and that label wouldn't fit as well as "druggie." Drug of choice was heroin, but anything was okay as long as it would mess him up. When he wasn't stealing, mooching off friends, getting 3 hots in jail, or on welfare, he worked as a merchant seaman, working in the galley as a dishwasher. He went on one 8 month voyage to get clean with a pal, but the two got high off drugs from the ship's dispensary and what they could score in port. A few times he went into rehab, but he kept his love affair with drugs. Different people came and went through his life, never making a long life friend with anyone other than loneliness. Somebody up above must have liked Hunke, despite the vida loco, he lived to be 81. His last years he spent living in the Chelsea Hotel, paid for by Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead, who never met him. Maybe Garcia, also a junkie, had read The Evening Sun Turned Read and could relate to the experiences. The books best quality is it's candidness, but he didn't have an unsullied reputation he was trying to keep. He had nothing to lose by being honest. He had a three page rap sheet with the legal system. He did have a natural talent for telling stories; too bad he didn't develop it further, but he was too busy with drugs for that. Allen Ginsberg writes a very generous introduction to the book, romanticising Hunke. But the reality is that there's nothing romantic about being a slave to anything.

Review # 2 was written on 2007-10-26 00:00:00 Mark Evans The Beat behind the Beats, or the original Beat that didn't break through via the media - but nevertheless an important 'Beat' figure and writer. Sort of like William S. Burroughs without the Science Fiction aspect of his writing. Very gritty and one can hear his voice via the writings. The muse who can write!