Essays. "As a leading Beat Generation scholar, Jim Jones has spent a good part of his career inspecting the autobiographical significance of Kerouac's efforts.For Jones, this grey area between the life Kerouac rendered in fiction and the life the writer actually lived has become a major concern. This book speaks of Jones's.desire that the whole of Kerouac's life-the vital, the sad, the ugly-be applied to the readings if this gray area is to be exposed"-from the introduction by Andy Hoffmann. Includes three essays: "Jack Kerouac's Nine Lives: A Biography of Biographies"; "Kerouactonums"; and "Kerouac in Seattle."