Joyce Johnson - The Voice Is All: The Lonely Victory of Jack Kerouac

In The Voice Is All, Joyce Johnson offers a groundbreaking portrait of Jack Kerouac. Unlike previous biographies, Johnson considers the insular and very traditional Franco-American immigrant culture Kerouac was born into, and the influence it had on his life and writing. She looks closely at Kerouac's struggle to find a voice as he negotiated the uneasy balance between two cultures and languages. Exploring the women Kerouac was involved with, Johnson's biography also focuses in particular on the psychological dynamics of his relationship with his mother, covering his life from boyhood up to 1951, the year he wrote On The Road.