Why read Minor Characters?

Book cover of Minor Characters: A Beat Memoir

Book description

Named one of the 50 best memoirs of the past 50 years by The New York Times

Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award

“Among the great American literary memoirs of the past century . . . a riveting portrait of an era . . . Johnson captures this…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Minor Characters as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Jill Elaine Hasday

Author

Johnson was Jack Kerouac’s girlfriend, before and after On the Road (1957) made Kerouac a Beatnik star. I love Johnson’s memoir because she expands the story of the writers and artists in the so-called Beat Generation to include women who mainstream accounts either ignore or treat as “minor characters.”

In my view, Johnson also demonstrates that she is a better writer than Kerouac, who tended to ramble. Some of her passages have stuck in my head for decades.

From Jill's list on women at the center of America’s stories.