From chapter 1 of Burning Furiously Beautiful: The True Story of “On the Road,” the book I’m coauthoring with Paul Maher Jr.:
Life was no easier for the paternal side of Jack Kerouac according to this retelling of the Kerouac lineage. Leo Duluoz, a pseudonym for Jack’s father Leo Kerouac, was six years old when Gaby was born. He had a dark countenance inclined toward sadness. His father, Jacques, was a carpenter from St. Hubert, Quebec. He possessed superlative skills at this trade to such a degree that he built his own home. Though Gaby was of Norman strain, Duluoz was Breton. The Duluoz family was marked by tragedy and pegged by doom. Over time Leo had eight siblings that were narrowed down to four. Kerouac catalogued the state of the Duluozes via madness and crippling diseases. Uncle Joe, Leo’s brother, was always shouting in his parlor, “La Mort, la mort!” This fatalist stamp manifested itself throughout the corpus of Jack Kerouac.
This sneak peek was first unveiled on our Facebook page. Join the conversation here!
Stephanie Nikolopoulos 
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