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Jack Kerouac
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Visions of Cody Kindle Edition

by Jack Kerouac (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 128 ratings
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"What I'm beginning to discover now is something beyond the novel and beyond the arbitrary confines of the story. . . . I'm making myself seek to find the wild form, that can grow with my wild heart . . . because now I know MY HEART DOES GROW." —Jack Kerouac, in a letter to John Clellon Holmes

An underground legend by the time it was finally published in 1972, Visions of Cody captures the members of the Beat Generation in the years before any label had been affixed to them, with Kerouac's trademark appreciation for the ecstatic and ephemeral moments of life

An experimental novel which remained unpublished for years, Visions of Cody is Kerouac's fascinating examination of his own New York life, in a collection of colourful stream-of-consciousness essays. Transcribing taped conversations between members of their group as they took drugs and drank, this book reveals an intimate portrait of people caught up in destructive relationships with substances, and one another. Always transfixed by Neal Cassady—the Cody of the title, renamed for the book along with Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs—Kerouac also explores the feelings he had for a man who would inspire much of his work.
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  1. Print length
    408 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Penguin Books
  5. Publication date
    August 1, 1993
  6. Reading age
    18 years and up
  7. Grade level
    12 and up
  8. File size
    1839 KB
  9. Page Flip
    Enabled
  10. Word Wise
    Enabled
  11. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  12. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"[Y]ou will find some of Kerouac's very best writing in this book.  It is funny, it is serious. It is eloquent. To read "On the Road" but not "Visions of Cody" is to take a nice sightseeing tour but to forgo the spectacular rapids of Jack Kerouac's wildest writing." —The New York Times Book Review

“Visions of Cody is [Kerouac's] greatest book, according to his own opinion, and its music is testimony to [his] verbal inventiveness and virtuosity . . . the range and variation of style within his remarkably growing bookshelf is just as remarkable . . . there is a grace, a majesty, and a tenderness to his language . . . both the inspiration and the content of this literature is of an intuitive, emotional, and mystical nature.” —The Village Voice

"The most sincere and holy writing I know of our age." —Allen Ginsburg

About the Author

Jack Kerouac was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1922, the youngest of three children in a Franco-American family. He attended local Catholic and public schools and won a scholarship to Columbia University in New York City, where he first met Neal Cassady, Allen Ginsberg, and William S. Burroughs. His first novel, The Town and the City, appeared in 1950, but it was On the Road, published in 1957 and memorializing his adventures with Neal Cassady, that epitomized to the world what became known as the “Beat generation” and made Kerouac one of the most best-known writers of his time. Publication of many other books followed, among them The Dharma Bums, The Subterraneans, and Big Sur. Kerouac considered all of his autobiographical fiction to be part of “one vast book,” The Duluoz Legend. He died in St. Petersburg, Florida, in 1969, at the age of forty-seven.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00C1KW9BK
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Books; Reprint edition (August 1, 1993)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ August 1, 1993
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1839 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 408 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 128 ratings

About the author

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Jack Kerouac

Jack Kerouac

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Jack Kerouac (1922-1969), the central figure of the Beat Generation, was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1922 and died in St. Petersburg, Florida, in 1969. Among his many novels are On the Road, The Dharma Bums, Big Sur, and Visions of Cody.

Photo by USGov (National Archives) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
128 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Steven
5.0 out of 5 stars Kerouac as Serious Writer
Reviewed in the United States on February 24, 2021
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Jack Kerouac wrote five drafts of "On the Road," and what was published in 1957 was the fourth version. "Visions of Cody" was the fifth, and when reading it the similarities are sometimes apparent, sometimes less so. If you intend to read this book, I'd recommend that you also have a copy of "On the Road," so that you can engage in their comparative study while reading. You might even take it a step further and have on hand a book titled, "Kerouac's Crooked Road, the Development of a Fiction," by Tim Hunt, a Kerouac scholar. However you choose to approach this book, you will appreciate how deeply serious a writer Jack Kerouac was.
7 people found this helpful
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Matt Raymond
5.0 out of 5 stars Got what i was looking fot
Reviewed in the United States on December 14, 2020
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The book came very quickly and arrived how it was described. Can’t ask for more.
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Muskrat
4.0 out of 5 stars I Can Goof If I Want To
Reviewed in the United States on March 27, 2013
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Yeah, this one is for the die-hards. I love Kerouac, but there so much of Cody that is just speed-induced gibberish. First 100 pages--GOLD. Frisco: The Tape--interesting for anyone into the beats. Imitation of the Tape--gloopy gloop dooferey doo goofing if he wants to (any apparently he really wanted to). Joan Rawshanks--vintage Jack. But once Jack gets the goof out of his system, the last 100 or so pages are dynamite, like On The Road in psychotic fast forward, featuring some of the greatest lines Ti Jean ever wrote.

It took me a couple reads to really get into this one, but now I can't stop. I find myself going back and re-reading memorable passages over and over, sometimes aloud to hear the rythym and beat of the words. It's not my favorite (that'd be either Tristessa or Desolation Angels), but it's definitely the most fascinating.

But, yeah, it's for the die-hards.
14 people found this helpful
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Gregg Taylor Banter author of Wolves and Wildflowers
5.0 out of 5 stars Many don't know...
Reviewed in the United States on May 2, 2016
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Many don't know this book was an alternate version of "On the Road " according to Kerouac. Reading it under this context was interesting and enjoyable.
3 people found this helpful
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Charise
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on April 29, 2018
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Beautiful book. Seller was very helpful!
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Janet Panos
5.0 out of 5 stars Classic Kerouac for all Jack Kerouac fans!
Reviewed in the United States on November 22, 2013
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"Visions of Cody" is a classic and "required reading" for all Kerouac lovers and a study in writing for all "writer hopefuls."
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Bo Crane
2.0 out of 5 stars Visions of Cody an uneven mess.
Reviewed in the United States on August 31, 2021
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Two stars is very generous for this "book," published in 1972 after Kerouac's death in 1969. I found parts of it impossible, and I love Kerouac, having read most of his other works. This work also contains taped conversations between Kerouac ("Jack") and Neal Cassady ("Cody"). Why?--the transcripts just seem to take up space. Occasionally, a coherent non-conversation passage appears, thank goodness, and mirrors what is in On the Road from a slightly different perspective. But that's only a handful of times. I give the book 2-stars, very generous, most of it is terrible, which is why he converted such episodes to On the Road instead. Read Visions of Gerard instead. I give that one four stars.
4 people found this helpful
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Maria
3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed
Reviewed in the United States on January 28, 2013
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I was really looking forward to this book. I wanted to see Kerouac's vision of his best friend. How he really felt about Neal Cassady and how their relationship was when the book focused on him. I was gravely disappointed. One section is "imitation of the tape" and that just makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Another section rattled on and on and made no connection to "visions of cody" whatsoever. I quit reading with 100 pages to go. I'll go back and finish but it's not his best work.
8 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 27, 2017
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Nice to re-read this book about Neal Cassady
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D
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 11, 2016
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Mesmerising. Kerouac's tour de force
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woodpecker777
4.0 out of 5 stars another insight into Jack Kerouak
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 10, 2013
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This book wasn't as readable as others he has written but at the same time it was innovative and exciting. I felt as if I was actually there with the guys listening in to their conversations (as in fact I was). This is history as it was being made
2 people found this helpful
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james black
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 24, 2016
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perfect
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mr s c gibert
3.0 out of 5 stars Vintage Kerouac.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 14, 2024
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I #have not read this book yet, I was disappointed to receive it with a torn back cover
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