Mexico City Blues: 242 Choruses

Memories, fantasies, dreams, and jazz—what more could a reader ask for? Widely hailed as Jack Kerouac’s most important poem, Mexico City Blues is a melodious and moving epic that was designed to read like an afternoon jam session on a Sunday. In these 242 choruses, Kerouac’s ideas flow from one idea to the next with what Allen Ginsberg called “tempestuous weeps and whorls” that are reminiscent of “the rich music of Gerard Manley Hopkins of Dylan Thomas.” Mexico City Blues serves as an excellent introduction into Kerouac’s theory of spontaneous composition in this feat of classic literature.