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 First edition | |
| Author | John Clellon Holmes |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Beat |
| Publisher | Scribner's |
Publication date | 1952 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (Hardback &Paperback) |
| OCLC | 62760722 |
Go is a semi-autobiographical novel byJohn Clellon Holmes. (Holmes referred to the book as aroman à clef.) It is considered to be thefirst published novel depicting thebeat generation. Set in New York, it concerns the lives of a collection of characters largely based on the friends Holmes used to hang around with in the 1940s and 1950s inManhattan. An underworld of drug-fueled parties, bars, clubs and free love is explored through the eyes of character Paul Hobbes, Holmes' representation of himself in the novel. Hobbes is torn between joining his friends in their riotous existence and trying to maintain his relatively stable life and marriage to his wife Kathryn.
Go concerns protagonist Paul Hobbes' struggle to maintain his marriage to his wife, Kathryn, while simultaneously indulging in the world of the 1940s and 1950s Beat Generation. It follows the complications of interpersonal relationships arising from a group of disillusioned and often eccentric young people. Hobbes finds himself in a world of promiscuity, casual drug use and petty crime but retains a certain detachment from it, sometimes to the annoyance of his friends. From wild all night parties toAllen Ginsberg's visions ofWilliam Blake to the death ofBill Cannastra, the events of the book are largely real events, some of them alluded to in other beat works, most notably Ginsberg's "Howl". Holmes has said that the only plot element entirely invented by himself is Kathryn's infidelity.[1]
The original manuscript was namedThe Daybreak Boys as an allusion to a rivergang on the New York waterfront in the 1840s, but this title was rejected as a book with a similar title had been published byScribner's shortly beforeGo was received. The wordGo appears regularly in the book, spoken by many of the cast of characters, almost as a mantra. In BritainGo was originally published asThe Beat Boys.[1]
The characters inGo are, as was common inbeat generation literature, representations of the real people the author knew while writing the book.