Allen Ginsberg: Beat Poet

I thoroughly enjoyed this long, detailed biography of the man who linked the Beats, Bob Dylan, the hippies and even some of the punks - "Ghetto Defendant" on The Clash's Combat Rock - making this also a biography of the Beats, and even of the counter-culture from the end of WWII to the 80's.The Beats weren't a likelable bunch, especially Kerouac and Cassidy, which perhaps makes Ginsberg seem more of the saintly Jewish Buddhist than perhaps he really was; but perhaps the greatest compliment I can pay to the book is that after reading it I felt that though Ginsberg would have driven me crazy I would love to have met him!

Thanks