Tristessa
by Jack Kerouac

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Book Reviews of Tristessa

Book Review: Near greatness.
Summary: 4 Stars

Tristessa ("sorrow" in Spanish) is Kerouac's shortest book. Out of all the stories he tells, it is perhaps the one which had the most importance to him. It certainly chronicles a very important point - his disillusionment with Buddhism, and the beginning of his final disillusionment with life. Observe how different the first part of the book is from the second - the first is filled with Buddhist mantras and reaffirmations of Buddhist faith, whereas the second mentions Buddhism only tangentially, and then in very bitter tones. (The year that passes in between the two parts is, I believe, the subject of his novel The Dharma Bums.) After that is his disillusionment with his own beat culture, as represented by Mexico City. Recall how joyously Kerouac enters Mexico in On The Road, his infectious sense of wonder and excitement and seeing something so new and so (he then thought) much closer to his heart. Now compare that with the hellish, rainy, junksick Mexico City of Tristessa, which Kerouac avows pure hatred for...but where he stays, only exacerbating his sadness.

All this disillusionment comes back to the story of the title character - Tristessa. Kerouac loved her intensely. She loved junk intensely. He stayed with her until he had nowhere else to go. Here I won't say too much, except that this is where Kerouac's most beautiful and touching writing ever comes in. There are sentences here which perfectly encapsulate such love as his, such as this: "She would look awful if she wasnt holy Tristessa--" The conclusion, in which Old Bull Gaines (William Burroughs?) gets her instead of Kerouac, is just about the most understated, knuckle-bitingly bitter episode I've ever read, or could have been if not for one thing, which I shall now explain.

I have never been a fan of Kerouac's spontaneous prose, and I think that more often than not it actively damages his gorgeous stories. Even Tristessa often reads like a first draft, probably because it is - Kerouac submitted first drafts straight for publication. The stream-of-consciousness is sometimes effective, but very frequently not, because it allows for utterly incomprehensible diversions. Three examples immediately come to mind:

1. "This woman is crying because you take all their money,--what is this? Russia? Mussia? Matamorapussia?" (27) Uh...what?

2. "You don't know what in a hell you're doing in this eternity bell rope tower swing to the puppeteer of Magadha, Mara the Tempter, insane, ...And all you eagle and you beagle and you buy--All you bingle you baffle and you lie--You poor motherin bloaks pourin through the juice parade of your Main Street Night you don't know that the Lord has arranged everything in sight." (42-43) Uh...what?

3. "Min n Bill n Mamie n Ike n Maronie Maronie Izzy and Bizzy and Dizzy and Bessy Fall-me-my-closer Martarky and Bee, O god their names, their names, I want their names, Amie n Bill, not Amos n Andy, open the mayor (my father did love them) open the crocus the mokus in the closet (this Freudian sloop of the mind) (O slip slop) (slap) this old guy that's always--Molly!--Fibber M'Gee be jesus and Molly--" (92) Uh..._what_?

This sort of impenetrable verbal murk contributes absolutely nothing to either story or mood, and only obscures the very real and very raw emotion underneath. Perhaps a revision or two would not have gone amiss here. Nonetheless, the story, the love, the intensity and the loss all carry this book, and there's so much beautiful writing that I don't have the space to quote it all. If ever you're wondering what the fuss over Kerouac was about, this is the book that will show you.

Summary of Tristessa

United States Books

• Subjects > Literature & Fiction > United States
• Literary