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Available
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Publication
Quartet Books (1975), Edition: New Ed, Paperback
User reviews
LibraryThing member gbill
In the beginning part of this book, I thought it was heading for a 2.5 star rating, as some of the sloppy grammar and lack of editing was poor even by Kerouac’s standards. If you do read it, all I can say is bear with it, it gets better.
Written in 1953 but not published until 1959 after the
Kerouac is on a trajectory to say goodbye to everyone around him and to live the life of a vagabond, and there are glimpses of that in his narrative which make it poignant. The book has a perfect ending, albeit bitter, with Jacky going back home after a few years and looking Maggie up. Throughout the book the writing is honest, and the overall effect of his writing is one that I would liken to a rough, post-impressionist painter. It’s an art form of its own, and if you’re looking for classical form or pristine, lyrical structure, this isn’t the book (or author) for you. If you are a Kerouac fan, it’s certainly worth reading, as one of the early pieces of the “Jack Duluoz legend”.
Quotes:
On confusion in love:
“One night by the radiator in March she’d starting huffing and puffing against me unmistakably, it was my turn to be a man – and I didnt know what to do, no idea in my dull crowded-up-with-worlds brain that she wanted me that night; no idea of what that is.”
On goodbye, these words from Maggie foretelling the nature of Kerouac’s real life:
“You’ll let me die – you wont come save me – I dont even know where your grave is – remember what you were like, where your house, what your life – you’ll die without knowing what happened to my face – my love – my youth – You’ll burn yourself out like a moth jumping in a locomotive boiler looking for light – Jacky – and you’ll be dead – and sink – and you’ll be dead – and lose yourself from yourself – and forget – and sink – and me too - …”
On love:
“Ah I loved my Maggie, I wanted to eat her, bring her home, hide her in the heart of my life the rest of my days.”
On passion, the wording is awkward and wrong but I love the nuggets “ambrosial brew” and “profound struggle” and the feeling he recreates:
“There were tears of joy in her eyes, on her cheeks; her warm body smelled ambrosial brew in the profound struggle we waged sinking in pillows, bliss, madness, night – hours on end -...”
On walking in the night; this is another example of the roughness of his grammar, but the net impressionist painting he creates reminds me of feelings I had when I was young and in similar circumstances:
“I walked home in the dead of Lowell night – three miles, no buses – the dark ground, roads, cemeteries, streets, construction ditches, millyards – The billion winter stars hugeing overhead like frozen beads frozen suns all packed inter-allied in one rich united universe of showery light, beating, beating, like great hearts in the non-understandable bowl void black.
To which nevertheless I offered up all my songs and longwalk sighs and sayings, as if they could hear me, know, care.”
Written in 1953 but not published until 1959 after the
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success of ‘On the Road’, ‘Maggie Cassidy’ has 16-17-year-old Kerouac (in the form of Jacky Duluoz) in high school, hangin’ out with the fellas, running at track events, playing baseball, and falling for Maggie Cassidy (real life, Mary Carney). As an aside, he’s also reading ‘Lust for Life’, the fictional biography of Van Gogh, as well as Whitman and later Dostoevsky, which I found fitting.Kerouac is on a trajectory to say goodbye to everyone around him and to live the life of a vagabond, and there are glimpses of that in his narrative which make it poignant. The book has a perfect ending, albeit bitter, with Jacky going back home after a few years and looking Maggie up. Throughout the book the writing is honest, and the overall effect of his writing is one that I would liken to a rough, post-impressionist painter. It’s an art form of its own, and if you’re looking for classical form or pristine, lyrical structure, this isn’t the book (or author) for you. If you are a Kerouac fan, it’s certainly worth reading, as one of the early pieces of the “Jack Duluoz legend”.
Quotes:
On confusion in love:
“One night by the radiator in March she’d starting huffing and puffing against me unmistakably, it was my turn to be a man – and I didnt know what to do, no idea in my dull crowded-up-with-worlds brain that she wanted me that night; no idea of what that is.”
On goodbye, these words from Maggie foretelling the nature of Kerouac’s real life:
“You’ll let me die – you wont come save me – I dont even know where your grave is – remember what you were like, where your house, what your life – you’ll die without knowing what happened to my face – my love – my youth – You’ll burn yourself out like a moth jumping in a locomotive boiler looking for light – Jacky – and you’ll be dead – and sink – and you’ll be dead – and lose yourself from yourself – and forget – and sink – and me too - …”
On love:
“Ah I loved my Maggie, I wanted to eat her, bring her home, hide her in the heart of my life the rest of my days.”
On passion, the wording is awkward and wrong but I love the nuggets “ambrosial brew” and “profound struggle” and the feeling he recreates:
“There were tears of joy in her eyes, on her cheeks; her warm body smelled ambrosial brew in the profound struggle we waged sinking in pillows, bliss, madness, night – hours on end -...”
On walking in the night; this is another example of the roughness of his grammar, but the net impressionist painting he creates reminds me of feelings I had when I was young and in similar circumstances:
“I walked home in the dead of Lowell night – three miles, no buses – the dark ground, roads, cemeteries, streets, construction ditches, millyards – The billion winter stars hugeing overhead like frozen beads frozen suns all packed inter-allied in one rich united universe of showery light, beating, beating, like great hearts in the non-understandable bowl void black.
To which nevertheless I offered up all my songs and longwalk sighs and sayings, as if they could hear me, know, care.”
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LibraryThing member manatree
Had it's moments, but Kerouac's schtick just isn't my cuppa tea.
LibraryThing member edwinbcn
Maggie Cassidy is another very bland boy-loves-girl novel. Reading the broader range of works, it is remarkable how many of Jack Kerouac are described as a-typical for his so-called style.
Maggie Cassidy is largely autobiographical. Interference by the publisher's editors resulted in renaming some
Maggie Cassidy is largely autobiographical. Interference by the publisher's editors resulted in renaming some
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of the characters and separating the work from the unity Kerouac had envisioned for the work to form with his major novels, a move resented by the author. Show Less
LibraryThing member madepercy
The spontaneous prose in Maggie Cassidy is certainly more self-evident than in On the Road. However, Neil Cassidy's verve sustains the plot whereas Maggie Cassidy is considerably more beat and indeed, more artistic. This style would be exceedingly difficult to imitate!
LibraryThing member thursbest
Least favorite book of Kerouac's I've ever read.
It took me nearly three weeks to get through it, I just had to put it down constantly because I couldn't get through it in a sitting.
It took me nearly three weeks to get through it, I just had to put it down constantly because I couldn't get through it in a sitting.
LibraryThing member DanielSTJ
This was another great book by Kerouac. The autobiographical details that are mixed in this ring of truth and a sense of purity for the development of his main character- and himself. It spells out what it means to have loved, someone's first love, and lost it alongside growing up. Kerouac writes
4 stars- well earned!
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from the heart here, and in a poetic style of prose that is palatable to the reader. I was quite impressed with this- Kerouac did not hold back. Through his efforts, he turned this into something memorable, and accessible, for all readers.4 stars- well earned!
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LibraryThing member Stahl-Ricco
I'm still not enjoying these early days of Jack Kerouac books as much as I did his life from "On the Road" on. But this one was a little better than the previous ones. It is about Jack's high school life, and his first 'true' love, Maggie. (well, another girl named Pauline might have been 'first',
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but her name's not on the cover, now is it?) Kerouac really captures the mania of a first love very well, with all of it's quirks, uneasiness, and intense feelings. The other parts of his life in this book, particularly the pieces when he is hanging out with his friends, are not as interesting. Heck, I hardly understood their dialogues at all! (did people really talk like that back then?) I also wasn't interested in all of the minute details of life in Lowell, and those details take up a lot of room in this book! I think if I was from Lowell, or really interested in what life was like pre-WWII in the Massachusetts area, this story would have won me over. But I wasn't, so it didn't. And that ending is quite a stinker. Jack should have stopped at 45 chapters. Show Less
Subjects
Language
Original publication date
1959
Physical description
160 p.; 7 inches
ISBN
0704312468 / 9780704312463