Go (Holmes novel)

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Go

First edition
Author	John Clellon Holmes
Language	English
Genre	Beat
Publisher	Scribner's
Publication date	1952
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
OCLC	62760722

Go is a semi-autobiographical novel by John Clellon Holmes. (Holmes referred to the book as a roman à clef.) It is considered to be the first published novel depicting the beat generation. Set in New York, it concerns the lives of a collection of characters largely based on the friends Holmes used to hang around with in the 1940s and 1950s in Manhattan. An underworld of drug-fueled parties, bars, clubs and free love is explored through the eyes of character Paul Hobbes, Holmes' representation of himself in the novel. Hobbes is torn between joining his friends in their riotous existence and trying to maintain his relatively stable life and marriage to his wife Kathryn.