Jack's Memoirs: Off the Road, a Novel - Softcover

"This is a moving tribute to Kerouac, whom Kurt Landefel d brilliantly resurrects in this imaginative triumph. He gives Kerouac a new lease on life (in more ways than one) in this finely executed novel. It's a 'must read' for anyone who values Kerouac, the Sixties, and the created worlds of those whose eyes see what might have been. Bravo." Dennis Baumwoll, professor emeritus Bucknell University --

"Myths were made for the imagination to put life into them." Albert Camus

If Jack Kerouac had lived, what would he have done and written? Kurt Landefeld opens this door for us in this fine fictional memoir.

"Kerouac has another shot at a happier ending thanks to Ohio novelist Kurt Landefeld who has written "Jack's Memoirs: Off the Road" (Bottom Dog Press). The novel is a kind of speculative autobiography wherein Kerouac gives up the booze, fakes his death and goes on a journey of epic self-discovery. . . .This is the question Landefeld asks in his new book. So I asked Landefeld how he imagined this new, enlightened Kerouac. He gets a second chance to save himself in this almost 600-page novel. He fakes his death, cuts his hair and grows a beard. He changes his name to Jack Moriarty. Even though Landefeld calls it "Off the Road" this new fictional Jack is still on a journey of sorts. He's on several journeys, in fact. He's on a geographical journey, a spiritual journey, and a literary journey. I love the idea that, given a second chance, Kerouac conquers his demons and ultimately finds the happiness that eluded him in life. That is the book's appeal." Michael Heaton, Cleveland Plain Dealer

"Against all odds, Kurt Landefeld has located another fold within Jack Kerouac's watery heart. This road loa à gogo jolts us one more time toward a deep, intentional, and moral narrative, which is the perennial kernel speaking simultaneously through Landefeld and all the great American angels that memory honors". Kenneth Warren, author of Captain Poetry's Sucker Punch: a Guide to the Homeric Punkhole, 1980 -201

If Jack Kerouac had lived, what would he have done and written? Kurt Landefeld opens this door for us in this fine fictional memoir. /
"Kurt Landefeld has brought Jack Kerouac back to life in an new, imagined road-journey. In the sustained force of this catapulting novel you will encounter Kerouac's omnivorous mind as it continues to gulp and swallow the big meanings of life and the richness of American literature and culture." ~Peter Balakian, author of Black Dog of Fate
"Against all odds, Kurt Landefeld has located another fold within Jack Kerouac's watery heart. This road loa à gogo jolts us one more time toward a deep, intentional, and moral narrative, which is the perennial kernel speaking simultaneously through Landefeld and all the great American angels that memory honors". ~Kenneth Warren, author of Captain Poetry's Sucker Punch: a Guide to the Homeric Punkhole, 1980 -2012