The Town and the City

499 pp. In this compelling first novel, Kerouac draws on his New England mill-town boyhood to create the world of George and Marguerite Martin and their eight children, each endowed with an energy and a vision of life. Kerouac would go on to become famous for On the Road and other works of lyrical immediacy that put him at the forefront of the Beat Generation movement with authors like Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs.