Arts-Entertainment
Wheatgrass Books is pleased to host a special book launch and reading for the reissue of Baby Driver by Jan Kerouac, featuring an introduction and discussion by local author Amanda Fortini on Tuesday, November 11th at 7 pm, located at 120 N. Main Street. The event is free and open to the public.
Originally published in 1981, Baby Driver is the electrifying debut novel by Jan Kerouac, daughter of literary icon Jack Kerouac. A thrilling work of autobiographical fiction, the book captures—with vivid, unflinching honesty—a life propelled by adventure, drugs, far-flung travel, and a relentless search for meaning and experience.
If [Jack] Kerouac sometimes put a spiritual gloss on poverty and life on the edge, his daughter offered an unflinching vision. — The Guardian
The novel opens with fifteen-year-old Jan, pregnant and living in Yelapa, Mexico, surviving on rice and the fish her boyfriend can catch. What follows is a fearless, frank chronicle of youth, rebellion, and self-reliance—a portrait of a woman navigating freedom and danger on her own terms.
The new edition of Baby Driver features an introduction by Amanda Fortini, acclaimed essayist and journalist whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Harper’s, and Elle. At the event, Fortini will read from and discuss both the novel and Jan Kerouac’s enduring legacy.
Add to your calendar and join us for an evening celebrating one of literature’s most daring voices and a fresh look at a Beat legacy from a new perspective.