The Beat Hotel: Ginsberg, Burroughs & Corso in Paris, 1957-1963

At first I thought that this book would be just that...a love letter, and along one, from an affected fan, considering how much of an insider Barry Miles was with the beats. it is all that, to some degree, but it is also an extensive and accurate review of the time surrounding a very important and often overlooked period of international social development that cannot be left out of the cannon of history for its significance in who we are today socially, morally, philosophically, and even religiously. While many would regard these beat figures with a distrusting eye, for many good reasons, this text is also insightful into the "why" the times developed the way they were. The disaffected generation had it's roots, and most of them...in Paris...where here. After all, experimentation requires a Petri dish to see how something grows outside of its normal environment. The kinds of experimentation that took place in the late 50s and early 60s could not have been staged in America.I don't like this book for the same reason that the author likes it himself. I simply like it because it is well-written and detailed....and...well, honest.

Very informative if you want to learn more backstory about the Beats

Fabulous!

In good condition,very happy.

The goings on in this decrepit old Paris Hotel, run by an old French lady who cooked Cassoulets for the guests, were astounding. A gathering point for starving artists, especially planetary beatniks, we discover that the unbridled use of hard drugs and graphic homosexuality were a lot more common than Eisenhower would have let us in America think! *.*This book is a hoot but I want to say up front that it was seriously well-researched by the author. It's predominantly about some well-known, perhaps infamous, American Beats, most of whom (in this hotel anyway) were bisexual drug users. There were also other 'artists' from various places in the world who either lived in The Beat Hotel (the hotel really didn't even have an official name), or they 'visited' as guests of residents for varying lengths of time.The peccadillos of these characters defy sanity. There's scrying, crying, heroin use, singing, pornography generation, speculating on psychedelic inventions, poetry readings, and tons of all manner of sex.William Burroughs seems to be the main guy in this life adventure -- we hear of the untimely death of his wife (at another location) as Burroughs was smashed, playing "William Tell" with her for the entertainment of the equally drunken and high guests, ultimately putting a bullet in her forehead. He was never arrested for this incident.The chief guy whom we expect to find lodged firmly in The Beat Hotel never made it: Jack Kerouac. But pretty much every one of his dubious associates made at least a visit.This book is well-written -- a real page-turner and quite hilarious. It matters not if the reader is gay, straight, or anywhere in-between sexually... you'll much enjoy this book. And, if ever there was a clear example of 'truth being stranger than fiction', this one is it.

This book is an exploration of the American beat movement during a time period in which most of its major representatives, (with the exception of Jack Kerouac and Gary Snyder) were in Paris at a cheap, nameless hotel located at Rue Git-Le-Coeur, and managed by one Madame Rachon. The hotel was cheap and unsanitary. As long as the guests paid their bills, Madame Rachon allowed them a broad range of freedom in their eccentric lifestyles. The beat hotel was home to the beats as well as to various artists, models, and other bohemians before it closed in 1963.The book includes wonderful bigraphical pictures of Allen Ginsberg, his lover Peter Orlovsky, Gregory Corso, William S. Burroughs, Brion Gysin (whose name was unfamiliar to me), and others who stayed at the beat hotel. There is detailed documentation on the activities of each during their stay in the beat hotel with some thought given to why each of these people are important and worth knowing something about.I found the discussion of the day to day life in the hotel the most rewarding part of the book together with a discussion of the relationships of the beats, and other guests, to Olympia Press, which published many of them together with many forgetable works of pornography at that time available only with difficulty in the United States.The book invites reflection on the nature of the beat movement and of the broader movement of bohemianism as it developed in the 19th Century. What were the beats looking for? They were full of unconventional, shocking behavior, particularly in the abuse of drugs and sex as these are documented graphically in the book. They were also serious, had a dedication to literature, a willingness to explore and to come to terms with themselves, a desire for change. The beats were perhaps the most cohesive literary movement 20th Century America has produced and in some cases produced works of merit. Miles's discussion of the work and achievement of these writers encourages one to want to know more.Miles ties the beats in to later developments in pop culture in the 1960s: rock and roll, psychedelics, open sexuality. This to me is claiming too little and too much. It trivializes this movement, I think, to watch the commercialization that took place during the 1960. The beats were isolated, troubled, and searching individuals who, in their productive days, neither had nor wanted the glare of the media. What they did was for themselves and what we make of them is a matter for reflection and not for subsequent 1960s hype.I read Miles biography of Kerouac and was moved by it to read this book. I wasn't disappointed. He is a thoughtful writer on a significant American literary movement.

I was very lucky to find this book as I'd only ever seen it for £50 before. I met Ginsberg when he was in London in the 60s because I lived in the house in Notting Hill where he was staying with fellow writer, poet Harry Fainlight - 24 Arundel Gardens, W11, if there's anyone reading this who remembers the place. At times that address was a bit 'Beat Hotel' like. I have recently become fascinated with Paris in the 50s and 60s and was delighted to read about people who were there and the beginnings of the 'alternative' life.The writing is very vibrant and the facts well-researched. Especially interesting were the pieces of information that could only be known by someone who actually knew the people and was around at the time. I will look out for more books by Barry Miles. This book ticked all the boxes for me, old Beat that I am and grateful that I am for having been introduced to these writers at an early age. The era is fascinating, the events, both literary and political invigorating and the writing gripping. I thoroughly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the history of alternative thought, philosophy, literature and expat living.

i like it a lot

Piquant tales from The Boho Zone.A good read.

great book thanks

Needs proof-reading. The digital version is full of errors. Should not be offered for sale until corrected. (Typical of too many books for Kindle.)