In her new book “The Awakener: A Memoir of Kerouac and the Fifties”(City Lights, $17), the translator and writer Helen Weaver provides a lush picture of her short, turbulent affair with the Beat writer that changed her life. In Weaver’s swirling memoir, readers will get a fresh perspective on Jack Kerouac and his magnetism as a man and writer.
Weaver was 25 in the fall of 1956 when she met Kerouac. The product of a sheltered childhood, Weaver’s world was shaken by Kerouac while he was on the cusp of publishing “On the Road,” the novel that would make both his career and the Beat Generation. Kerouac was passionate, kind and irresponsible, as well as prone to drunken depressions. The book is an exploration of the bohemian counterculture in New York’s Greenwich Village and the coming of radical changes in American society. Weaver was also involved both politically and sexually with the martyred comic Lenny Bruce in the 1960s, and later became both a noted translator of the French philosopher Antonin Artaud and an astrologer. “The Awakener” is a vivid look at the 1950s Beat era and Weaver’s winding path to personal enlightenment.
Weaver, 78, lives in Woodstock, N.Y., where she spoke with freelance writer Dylan Foley by telephone.
Q. Where does your title “The Awakener” come from?
A. When Jack lived with me, I couldn’t get enough sleep. That was the silly meaning of the title. Later, I had a feeling that Jack woke a whole lot of people up with his writing, for the 1950s had been such a sleepy time. There was also the Buddhist connection. The word “buddha” literally means “the awakened one.” Jack was very important in creating interest in Buddhism in the United States.
Q. Could you describe the chaotic nature of your three-month relationship with Kerouac?
A. Jack was a mass of contradictions. He really was a sweet, sensitive person, but he was an alcoholic. I wouldn’t say he was an angry drunk…he’d got really depressed when he drank. My roommate was not working, so she and Jack could stay up late, and I had to get up to go to my nine-to-five job. It was very stressful.
Q. Could you describe the hair-pulling incident?
A. Jack came over very late with his friend Lucien Carr. I don’t do well when people interrupt my sleep. I just completely lost it. Apparently, I pulled out a chunk of Jack’s hair. He said that was the beginning of the end of his looks. He said he had to wear a hat after that. I was quite flattered, though, that Lucien started calling me slugger.
Helen Weaver in 1955
Q. You were involved in the campaign to fight the censorship of the comedian Lenny Bruce, then you had a sexual encounter with him. What happened afterwards?
A. The most important thing that happened after I had sex with Lenny Bruce was when I walked into my analyst’s office the next day. I told this father-figure analyst that I had had sex with Lenny, and he asked, “How was it?” It doesn’t sound like much, but it was an amazing event in my life. I was pretty uptight, but that was the beginning of my sexual revolution.
(Helen Weaver's memoir from City Lights Books)
Q. After working in publishing for years, you went on to have a brilliant career as a translator. How do look back at the 25-year-old Helen Weaver?
A. I wouldn’t want to be her again. If nostalgia means you’d rather be back in the past, then I don’t have nostalgia. I salute her and I thank her for taking all those great notes of the 1950s. She was braver than I am today. I admire her for being open to new experiences, but I don’t envy her at all. I’d rather be where I am today as a 78-year-old woman. I am much happier today.
(This interview originally ran in the Newark Star-Ledger in June 2010)Weaver was 25 in the fall of 1956 when she met Kerouac. The product of a sheltered childhood, Weaver’s world was shaken by Kerouac while he was on the cusp of publishing “On the Road,” the novel that would make both his career and the Beat Generation. Kerouac was passionate, kind and irresponsible, as well as prone to drunken depressions. The book is an exploration of the bohemian counterculture in New York’s Greenwich Village and the coming of radical changes in American society. Weaver was also involved both politically and sexually with the martyred comic Lenny Bruce in the 1960s, and later became both a noted translator of the French philosopher Antonin Artaud and an astrologer. “The Awakener” is a vivid look at the 1950s Beat era and Weaver’s winding path to personal enlightenment.
Weaver, 78, lives in Woodstock, N.Y., where she spoke with freelance writer Dylan Foley by telephone.
Q. Where does your title “The Awakener” come from?
A. When Jack lived with me, I couldn’t get enough sleep. That was the silly meaning of the title. Later, I had a feeling that Jack woke a whole lot of people up with his writing, for the 1950s had been such a sleepy time. There was also the Buddhist connection. The word “buddha” literally means “the awakened one.” Jack was very important in creating interest in Buddhism in the United States.
Q. Could you describe the chaotic nature of your three-month relationship with Kerouac?
A. Jack was a mass of contradictions. He really was a sweet, sensitive person, but he was an alcoholic. I wouldn’t say he was an angry drunk…he’d got really depressed when he drank. My roommate was not working, so she and Jack could stay up late, and I had to get up to go to my nine-to-five job. It was very stressful.
Q. Could you describe the hair-pulling incident?
A. Jack came over very late with his friend Lucien Carr. I don’t do well when people interrupt my sleep. I just completely lost it. Apparently, I pulled out a chunk of Jack’s hair. He said that was the beginning of the end of his looks. He said he had to wear a hat after that. I was quite flattered, though, that Lucien started calling me slugger.
Helen Weaver in 1955
Q. You were involved in the campaign to fight the censorship of the comedian Lenny Bruce, then you had a sexual encounter with him. What happened afterwards?
A. The most important thing that happened after I had sex with Lenny Bruce was when I walked into my analyst’s office the next day. I told this father-figure analyst that I had had sex with Lenny, and he asked, “How was it?” It doesn’t sound like much, but it was an amazing event in my life. I was pretty uptight, but that was the beginning of my sexual revolution.
(Helen Weaver's memoir from City Lights Books)
Q. After working in publishing for years, you went on to have a brilliant career as a translator. How do look back at the 25-year-old Helen Weaver?
A. I wouldn’t want to be her again. If nostalgia means you’d rather be back in the past, then I don’t have nostalgia. I salute her and I thank her for taking all those great notes of the 1950s. She was braver than I am today. I admire her for being open to new experiences, but I don’t envy her at all. I’d rather be where I am today as a 78-year-old woman. I am much happier today.
2 comments:
The Awakener (2006) overall is very, very good.
Alas, the editing (pervasive lack there of)...
STOP starting sentences with the word "but."
CUT the verbose and pointless comparisons created by the bad writing habit of stating, excessively, "Not only... but also..."
Toss the unnecessary "somes" and "severals."
Ogunquit is a town in Maine, not Massachusetts (p. 23).
And when did books without indexes become "OK"?!
Still, in all, The Awakener is well worth reading, whether or not you end up agreeing/disagreeing with its author (if you happened to have read, before you gave up and threw it away, as I did, Nora Johnson's belligerent memoir Flashback, you will absolutely positively ADORE Helen Weaver from word one).
The book's overall primary virtue is its author's candor, which is compatible with her modesty --- a pleasant, and rare, combination.
Her four horoscopes in the final chapter are handwritten; if that matters to you, I recommend using Solar Fire to create printed charts that are much, much easier to read.
As for that final chapter (wisely segregated from the main story), alas, here we go again. Helen absorbed all of the off-putting, pretentious and silly astrological jargon of her time, and when it came her time to relay it in print, unfortunately did so.
However, the information about the charts that she provides is stellar in itself (no matter where one looks in the book, there seems to be, and it is most welcome, a saving grace).
When she employed the language that people speak in normal conversations, she offers useful information ("A birth time exactly on the hour is always regarded with suspicion by astrologers," p. 244), and occasional brilliant statements ("Pisces is the sign least at home on this planet," p. 253).
Allow me to bore you by insisting, once again, that a competent editor would have bounced all the five-dollar words, dumped the clichés, and in the end, would have created so much better a book (rewriting it and re-issuing The Awakener , a worthwhile project, would not at all be difficult to do).
The Helen Weaver - Helen Elliot chart synastry --- it's a wonder they didn't kill each other! (The related thought is, how did any two people born in 1931 get along with each other?!)
This ends on somewhat of a down note. She mentions her friend Dan Wakefield. His book, New York [City] In The 50s, is at times a very tough read (verbose, etc.), although, after finishing The Awakener, I was delighted to discover that I had held on to my copy of The 50s.
I recommend getting ahold of a library copy, and see, by extensive reading, if you like it before spending money to obtain it for your shelf.
Don Reed (05/28/21)
The memoir is a very satisfying read, with interesting and unique insight into the mind and life of an intelligent, creative woman trying to make it on her own in the 50s.
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