A brief but dense overview of early beat to early hippie culture. I found that it mainly served to show how disgusting and deluded many of these sociopaths were, and the only part I really enjoyed reading was a section near the end about the women in the lives of these poets and writers who continually found themselves overshadowed and abused. That felt more true and real to me than any of the biography stuff about Kerouac or Burroughs (who was probably a psychopath if his actions are any judge). Worth reading but do so with an attentive filter.