New York Times Travel: Kerouac's Mexico

“Kerouac never took Mexico very seriously,” said Jorge García-Robles (THE STRAY BULLET).

garcia-robles_stray coverEXCERPT: Mazatlán is one of the many places that the Beats used to bolster the idea of Mexico as the destination for debauched recreation and self-discovery. Hollywood headed south first (Errol Flynn and John Wayne vacationed along Mexico’s Pacific coast), but Kerouac and William S. Burroughs, who moved to Mexico City in 1949 to avoid a drug charge in New Orleans, laid down in literature a charmingly simple notion of the country that has endured.

Read the full article, which lists The Stray Bullet as suggested reading.

Published in: New York Times
By: Damien Cave