"Visions of Gerard" by Jack Kerouac

Visions of Gerard by Jack Kerouac

Kerouac turns from the highway to the family home in this tender, deeply personal novel (1963). Set in Lowell, Massachusetts, it remembers his older brother Gerard, a frail, gentle boy who died of rheumatic fever at the age of nine. The story is seen through the eyes of Ti Jean, Kerouac’s young alter ego, who watches the saintly child suffer and fade.

Kerouac blends working-class family life, Catholic faith, and the quiet routines of a French-Canadian household into something close to a prayer. The nuns who tend to Gerard, the animals he loves, and the small mercies of his short life all shine with reverence. The prose is lyrical and often heartbreaking.

It is one of Kerouac’s most moving books, and a revealing counterpoint to the wild energy of On the Road.