Paul Maher Jr. Kerouac: The Definitive Biography

I'm amazed at the review by Publishers's Weekly. If this is a "gushing fan letter" from Maher to Kerouac, I'd hate to see what Maher would write about someone he really didn't like!

The greatest strength of this biography, for me, was the detail Maher provides about Kerouac's daily life. So many biographies give you a series of highlights and "events" but don't give you any sense of what the subject's life was like on a day-by-day basis. This biography actually answers the questions "What did Kerouac do when he got up in the morning? What did he do on an average day?" It in fact destroys any heroic, romantic image you might have of Kerouac and replaces it with a detailed image of who Kerouac really was---how he spoke; the way he approached writing; how he conducted his relationships; his intense, desperate, peripatetic wanderings. I found it to be a very unusual and interesting glimpse into a very, very troubled life.