If you are new to the Beats, read this book last. Read it long after you've read the works of the Beats and shortly after you've moved onto their biographies and autobiographies. Read it when you've finished all of Jack Kerouac's books, half of William S. Burrough's books, all of Allen Ginsberg's poems, suffered through Gary Snyder, have watched interviews, movies, and read almost everyting there is to experience on the Beats, then read this book because there are numberable historical facts that Pekar gets wrong. I'm not a Beat scholar but I've read them extensively and read bios, heard the jazz collaborations, seen the movies, and even I was aware of the mistakes Pekar makes in some of the histories.
Keeping in mind that Pekar isn't the best historian, (a damn shame since it prevents the book from being great and universally recommendable) the book is good. Pekar's style is short and simple. Outside of the movie "American Splendor" this was my first exposure to Pekar and since I am not a comic fan, the main illustrator Ed Piskor was alien to me as well. Pekar sums of the giants of the Beats very succinctly and Piskor draws them with a certain rawness that conveys the emotions as animalistic and creepy (not a bad thing---just saying).
The real treats begin when some of the other authors and artists get a turn. There's a section devoted to women beats (go feminism!) beat artists, beat musicians, and beat poets outside of the most recognizable ones. Tuli Kupferberg's section is my favorite. The style owes a lot to artist R. Crumb and the narrative is his own so it's a bit braggard at times (if someone else said said the same thing about him it wouldn't come across that way) but that's fine because he was in a seminal rock band most of us have never heard of: The Fugs.
I included a link in the title to another review of the book. It lists the errors Pekar makes in great depth. A good book, fascinating illustrations, good for Beat fans, and if you're in Fargo, it's at the library.
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