Tristessa

Tristessa is a novella by Beat Generation writer Jack Kerouac set in Mexico City. It is based on his relationship with a Mexican prostitute (the title character). The woman's real name was Esperanza ("hope" in Spanish); Kerouac changed her name to Tristessa ("tristeza" means sadness in Spanish and Portuguese). This novel has been translated into Spanish by Jorge García-Robles, of Mexico City. Allen Ginsberg, in describing the book, wrote, "Triste... more

Tristessa is a novella by Beat Generation writer Jack Kerouac set in Mexico City. It is based on his relationship with a Mexican prostitute (the title character). The woman's real name was Esperanza ("hope" in Spanish); Kerouac changed her name to Tristessa ("tristeza" means sadness in Spanish and Portuguese). This novel has been translated into Spanish by Jorge García-Robles, of Mexico City. Allen Ginsberg, in describing the book, wrote, "Tristessa's a narrative meditation studying a hen, a rooster, a dove, a cat, a dog, family meat, and a ravishing, ravished junky lady". In "Tristessa", Kerouac attempts to sketch for the reader a picture of quiet transcendence in hectic and sometimes dangerous circumstances. He chronicles "Tristessa's" addiction to morphine and impoverished life with descriptions tinged with elements of her saintly beauty and her innocence. Early in the novel, Kerouac attempts to communicate his Buddhist beliefs. These beliefs become entangled as a metaphor in the... less