Helen Weaver (1931–2021)

Overall, I thought this book was just okay. It was interesting to see Kerouac from the "other side", but I didn't feel like I actually learned anything new. The author is Ruth Harper in "Desolation Angels " and Virginia in "Minor Characters ", so her perspective did hold some interest for me. I really felt like this suffered from the lack of Jack's letters to her NOT being included. THAT would have been pretty cool! As is, she gives us the summaries of those letters, which is far from the same thing. Still, I'm not disappointed that I read it, and the following quote about Kerouac really resonated with me:

"I was beginning to feel that his Buddhism was just one big philosophical rationalization for doing whatever he wanted."

I too have felt about him, and many other people I've known. I think Ms. Weaver hit the nail right on the head!… (altro)

I am a dog lover and have been all my life, so the cover of this book with its full-on soulful gaze from the title canine, jumped right out and grabbed me when I picked it up in a a used bookstore yesterday. And yes, my dog's name is Daisy. Last night I picked it up, "just to look at it," and was sucked into Helen Weaver's story of her own beloved Daisy, as well as the subplot of becoming caretaker for her aged mother. And I loved her story - for the first 100 pages. Then Daisy died and she began talking of "the beyond" and "animal communicators," and, unfortunately, she lost me as a reader. I hadn't realized the "conversations with my dog" subtitle indicated a kind of "doggy medium" who would act as interpreter between Weaver and Daisy - first while Daisy was still alive, and then after Daisy died. Like I said, I love dogs as much as anyone, and I have conversations with MY Daisy, but there's no go-between. Okay, so my Daisy doesn't talk back, but I'm pretty sure she's listening and understands enough. It's all there in her eyes.

I do think that Helen Weaver is a very talented and sensitive writer. But I also feel that she's been victimized by these so-called "communicators." If she doesn't feel that way, then I guess it's not my business. Whatever floats your boat, I suppose. In researching Weaver, I found she recently published what looks like a fascinating memoir called "The Awakener," which features her "beatnik" days when she knew Kerouac, Ginsberg and others from that scene. Not long ago I read Joyce Johnson's memoir of her days with Kerouac et al and quite enjoyed it. Perhaps I'll follow up on Weaver's memoir of the beat scene.

If you're a dog lover, you'll probably like at least PART of this book, and maybe you'll like it all. I just couldn't quite hack all that esoteric mystical stuff. Guess I'm one of the skeptics that Weaver addresses near the end. I'll tell you this, Helen. Your Daisy was one lucky dog to have found you. I hope you're loving another dog by now.… (altro)

In his autobiographical novel DESOLATION ANGELS Jack Kerouac wrote about returning to New York from a trip to Mexico City in the fall of 1956 and straight away meeting up with the young Ruth Heaper, who was to become his new girlfriend. Ruth Heaper was Kerouac's pseudonym for Helen Weaver, who now tells her own story of that encounter, and much more, in this long-awaited book. Having read some of Helen's reminiscences of those times in Dan Wakefield's NEW YORK IN THE FIFTIES I was hungry for more, and THE AWAKENER certainly delivers. Not only do we get a blow-by-blow account of her times with Kerouac, and later with Lenny Bruce, but also much fascinating background material on what it was like living in Greenwich Village in the 1950s. As well as Kerouac, Helen Weaver knew his friends Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, Lucien Carr, and others, and there's much here about them, including a wonderful description of the crazy genius who was the bohemian ethnomusicologist and experimental filmmaker, Harry Smith.

New to me was Kerouac's liking for the emerging rock 'n' roll music of the time. I knew that Jack was mainly a jazz enthusiast, with an especial interest in the bebop sounds of Bird Parker, Monk, and Diz, as well as the singing of Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald, but I was unaware that he also enjoyed, with Helen, the pop music of Elvis Presley and Screaming Jay Hawkins, and the musical My Fair Lady. That was a revelation.

The final sections of the book present Helen's own appraisal of Kerouac as a writer and his growing impact on the literary world. The whole story is extremely engaging, told sincerely and with some humor. I learned a lot more about the Beats and the times from reading this essential work, and I recommend it unreservedly to all who are interested in the characters and events of that unique period.… (altro)

In The Awakener Helen Weaver details her relationships in the 50’s, after she moved from her parent’s suburban New York home to Greenwich Village. Through her roommate, Helen Elliott (the were known as the two Helen’s), she gets to know Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsburg, Gregory Corso, and Lucien Carr. Weaver gives a very intimate portrait of Kerouac through her writing. I got a sense of what it was like to know Kerouac, and see what a different individual he was. I don‘t think I‘ve ever seen Kerouac portrayed in any other book so clearly as a person before.

In the 60’s she works on the defense of Lenny Bruce during his obscenity trial and she delves into that relationship as well. Since she knew Bruce for so short a time, only a small portion of the book is dedicated to their relationship.

Throughout the book she mixes just the right amount of hindsight with contemporaneous remembrances. Shes honest about her reactions and feelings at the times of the events and how she’s come to terms with the events that so changed her life. And includes one of the most astute observations I've read in a while "When civilizations are young, they value their cities. When they become decadent, they value nature."

The Awakener isn’t just a memoir about the events of her affairs with Kerouac and Bruce. It’s more her relationships with them were brief. Most of the book is a meditation on how Kerouac and Elliott changed her life for the better, the worse and how she’s come to terms with them and made her peace with them and the events of her earlier life in later years. The memoir is seamless from the meditations and Weaver’s writing is never dull when the main characters recede from her life. They may have physically been gone but they’re with her still and she translates this well to the reader.… (altro)