# Tristessa

Canonical: https://www.bookquiver.com/jack-kerouac/tristessa/9780241389003

![Tristessa](https://quivercdn.com/covers/penguin/jack-kerouac/tristessa_978-02-4138-900-3.jpg?v=2026-04-24%2016%3A24%3A14)

- Book: [Tristessa](https://www.bookquiver.com/jack-kerouac/tristessa) ([Tristessa.md](https://www.bookquiver.com/jack-kerouac/tristessa.md))
- Authors: [Jack Kerouac](https://www.bookquiver.com/jack-kerouac)
- Publisher: Penguin
- Medium: ebook
- ISBN: 978-02-4138-900-3
- Published: 2019-07-04
- Language: en_GB
- Binding: E-book

## Description

She understands Karma, she says: " What I do, I reap "' Her name means sadness, yet Tristessa, a prostitute and morphine addict, lives without cares in her shabby room with a menagerie of pets and an altar to the Virgin Mary. Based on Jack Kerouac's own real-life love affair in Mexico city, this is the story of a man's ill-fated relationship with a woman he portrays with tenderness and dignity, even as her life spirals out of control. 'A narrative meditation studying a hen, a rooster, a dove, a cat, a chihuaha dog, family meat, and a ravishing, ravished junky lady, first in their crowded bedroom, then out to drunken streets, taco stands, and pads at dawn in Mexico City slums' Allen Ginsberg