Energy, conviction, and unexpected brilliance.-New Yorker. The definitive history of the 'beat generation'.... It is an authoritative piece of literary history as a result of which Kerouac, Burroughs, and Ginsberg will be read with greater understanding, sympathy, and insight.-Leon Edel. Naked Angels is continually illuminating...written with insight, passion, and an awareness of just how prophetic these men were in their lives and works. I consider it an essential book.-John Clellon Holmes. Strong, urgent, ultimately thrilling.-Peter Schjeldahl, New York Times Book Review. As fine a view as we are likely to get of this vibrant phase in American literary history.-Chicago Sun-Times. A thoroughly readable and persuasive work...by far the best extensive commentaries on the works of Burroughs, Kerouac, and Ginsberg.-Thomas Parkinson, American Literature.