The Beat Generation

The Beat Generation/ is a play about tension, about friendship, and
about karma--what it is and how you get it. It begins one fine morning
with a few friends, honest laborers some of them, some close to being
down-and-out, passing around a bottle of wine. It ends with a kind of
satori-like reaffirmation of the power of friendship, of doing good
through not doing, and the intrinsic worth of the throwaway little
exchanges that make up our lives.

Written in 1957, the same year that /On the Road/ was first published,
and set in 1953, /The Beat Generation/ portrays an authentic and
alternate 1950s America. Kerouac's characters are working-class men and
women--a step away from vagrants, but not a big step. Their dialogue
positively sings, suggesting jazz riffs in their rhythm and content, and
Kerouac, like a master composer, arranges it to magical effect. Here is
the heart and soul of the beat mentality, the zeitgeist that blossomed
over the decades and eventually culminated in the counter-culture of
1960s America. It's a spirit that still lives.