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38 of 39 found the following review helpful:
Kerouac's most overlooked novel, and his best.Aug 06, 1996
Kerouac has fallen in and out of cult hero worship, for many
reasons. He was the forefather of the spectacularly popular
Beat Generation, his books are full of raw energy and
rebellion, and he died of a brain hemorrhage watching "The
Galloping Gourmet". These are all wonderful reasons to read
"On the Road" or "Subterraneans". Do not read "Tristessa"
for these reasons. Read "Tristessa" for its pure Kerouac
voice, for its wonderful hollow music which echoes the
wildest romantic poets, the heroin-desperate streets of Mexico
City, and the soul of Kerouac himself. This is Kerouac's
most haunting, melodic, and starkly religious work,
the story of true love and the lie of love, the story of
hope and of the crush of drugs, poverty and despair.
To read this
book is to be Kerouac, to be crazy-drunk with no place to
sleep and no money to eat, but to be crying with happiness
because the woman you love is unconscious in the gutter beside
you. You can hear the words inside your head long after
you close the book... "shouldna done it Lord, Awakenerhood,
shouldna played the suffering-and-dying game with the children in
your own mind, shoulda whistled for the music and danced..." "I love her but the song
is---broken---"
10 of 10 found the following review helpful:
Amazing romantic novel!Aug 14, 2003
The basic story line in this book surrounded a junky Mexican prostitute named Tristessa of whom Jack(Kerouac's "alias") has fallen madly in love with. Jack can't find a way to tell her, and she sends him completely mixed signals, and is constantly too hung up on her drug addiction to care about love. At one point he leaves to go up to California(in which period of time "The Dharma Bums" takes place), and the story picks up a year later when Jack returns with his urgent need to see Tristessa.Another story line of Tristessa involves Jack sitting in the pad where Tristessa and her friend Cruz live, and his fasination with the animals that live there (a Chihuaua, a cat, a hen, a rooster, and a dove). He meditates and watches them, wondering what they're thinking and trying his best to earn their trust and respect. This was quite an amazing book, the second best book I've read this year after The Losers' Club by Richard Perez. I find any of Jack Kerouac's works hard to put down, as there is always something new and interesting and fascinating to read and learn from his writing. I would recommend this story to any Beat Generation or Kerouac reader.
16 of 18 found the following review helpful:
 A story of love and sufferingApr 19, 2002
By Michael J. Mazza
Jack Kerouac's "Tristessa" is a short novel about an American poet (named, like the author, Jack) and his love for Tristessa, a Mexico City drug addict. The book follows the experiences of Jack, Tristessa, and their circle of friends in the seedy underside of Mexico City. Kerouac's language in this book is startling: a prose poetry that reminds me of Allen Ginsberg's poem "Howl." The words in "Tristessa" tumble at you in a wild, hypnotic rush. There are lots of apparently made-up words, sort of "Spanglish" flourishes, and pop culture references. Buddhism serves as a frequent subtext to the novel; I would recommend reading this together with Kerouac's "The Scripture of the Golden Eternity." "Tristessa" is a sad look at the human toll taken by drug abuse, and is full of vivid details of the title character's world. Recommended as a companion text: "Quiet Days in Clichy," by Henry Miller.
5 of 5 found the following review helpful:
What's Changed?Apr 21, 2005
By John
I remember reading this about three years ago as an undergrad and not enjoying this book. I'm not sure why. I just never much liked the Beats; their experiences just seemed so foreign to mine for me to relate. But I reread this book a couple of days ago, and everything had changed. I'm just guessing that I was an idiot a few years ago, and now I'm obviously wise and intelligent and crazy and depressed enough to like this. I read this straight through, and every minute of it felt so authentic. I felt the sorrow here. The longing the protagonist has for Tristessa and the desire he has to redeam her. The sense of despair and longing for spiritual fulfillment. I appreciated his engagement initially with Buddhism and eventually a reconsideration of Christianity. This was a nice read. Spare and sincere. I'll reread it again soon. I'm sure that I'll like it again.
5 of 5 found the following review helpful:
Romance that could never BeNov 09, 2003
By William Bradford
"hipster818"
The first thing that struck me about this book was the way it ends. It ends with an ellipsis. How many books to you read that end like that? Not many would be my guess. As for the story this book is more about the voice of Kerouac. He is exposing more of himself than in any other book. The book is less about a story and more about to be Kerouac in Mexico, without anything to give him comfort. Rather he is lost in himself, drunk and confused. He finds a woman who he wants to be with. Someone he can hold someone her can touch, yet the problems lies in the fact that he can't tell her. Yet you can read between the lines and see a man who is giving up upon himself. Faced with uncertainty, wavering from his strong Buddhist beliefs. This book is more personal than I ever knew. This book can almost be seen as Kerouac moving against what he believed. Everything comes into question. The fact that Tristessa is addicted to drugs, plays on the point of what is he to do? On the one hand he loves her and on the other he can't bring himself to tell her that. I have loved this book from the first time I read it when I was a junior in high school. The beauty of this book is amazing can never be stated enough. This is a must read for any Kerouac fan.
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