Jack Kerouac, Maggie Cassidy

R. J. Ellis (University of Birmingham)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.4: American (US) Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Sofia Ahlberg (Uppsala University), Patrick Chura (University of Akron), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Christopher Hugh Gair (University of Glasgow), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1959

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Non-Fiction
- Biography (literary)
Novel

Resources

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Maggie Cassidy

portrays the love affair of two teenagers living in Lowell: a French Canadian-American, Jacky Duluoz, and the Irish Maggie Cassidy. However, it is a story emphasizing not so much love’s eternality, as its fleeting precariousness.

Jacky and Maggie meet at a New Year’s Eve ball in 1938, and the novel traces the fumbling course of their love. Maggie is one year older than Jacky, and he feels that she is exerting pressure on him to bring to their relationship more commitment than he is prepared to offer whilst herself failing to completely clarify her own level of commitment. At first he pulls away whilst she presses, but progressively the roles come to be reversed. He draws closer to her, finally (and a little reluctantly) breaking up with his previous girlfriend, Pauline

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513 words

Citation: Ellis, R. J.. "Maggie Cassidy". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 23 April 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=3772, accessed 18 April 2024.]

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