1001+ Books:
#6 - On the Road
by: Jack Kerouac (1957)
A book, at it's best, can be a window into the soul of another human being, another mind at work with ideas about the way things are and what not and all that goes on in the world to them. This is such a book, less a narrative, more a wild screaming road down out and through the great landscape of the world known as America, buzzing and zooming past characters and beats through the night hopped up on booze and tea and life! It's a generation definer, a snapshot in the history of the highways and routes and roots and wayward travelers in the time of freedom on the open road and wild abandon down life's ephemeral ways with reckless youth and infinite, spiraling life force that permeates throughout the text like the blooming headlights passing you in the dark of the American dream. Quite the ride, and that's what it is above most everything else: a ride, not a story. A life, not a linear line or a narrative structure.
Dean Moriarty is not the protagonist of the book, but he is what the book is about, for lack of a better phrase or term. Dean is a rambunctious, crazy, and wild man who travels the American landscape with friends and strangers in the eternal pursuit of kicks. Getting his kicks is, for him, achieving the very American dream, as it were, and finding his moments and swathes of grace to enshroud himself in and breathe in with fire and vigor that the people around him can only hang onto and become hurtled along with him in his mad voyage. He is the touchstone of everything wild and careless and free in the world (or at least the USA) and he attracts people who want to be like him like flies on sugar, and repels others like oil on water. Some get him (it), others don't. Truman Capote didn't, deriding the book by calling it typing, not writing. I feel like I understand Dean. I'd like to be him. That's not to say I would like to be his friend, or even be around him. That's not my life, but reading this book makes me feel, however briefly, that I wish it were.
So what's it about (the book)? It's about America, and the open road, and the burning youth and desire for freedom, and not much else. The story is told from the perspective of Sal, who is infatuated with Dean and tells his story in some kind of a crazy remembrance of himself and things that he felt and things that happened to him. He recounts his various adventures with Dean and other friends and lovers, relishing the times they had together traveling across the country there and back and all over again. It is a breathless, free roaming book full of little moments and unwavering momentum that never really breaks down. Nothing, and everything, seems to happen all the time, and it has the wild dash spirit of the characters lives. Apparently autobiographical, it is a keen insight into the mind of a madman, a man high on life, man!
But what is it really about? It is about a certain lifestyle, and a certain kind of person that can simultaneously be a loathsome detriment and a kind of crazy beauty and purity, like fire that is so alive yet so dangerous to touch. It's about being totally free, and the consequences that come with freedom. Dean is free, but if you look at his life, and simply look into the future a few years, you see an accident waiting to happen, one that is inevitable. The book doesn't dwell on it too much, but there is certainly a feeling of things turning out badly for the lives of the people Dean touches. He leaves a line of bastard children across the States like a trail of abandoned eggs waiting to go bad or break to easily. He steals cars, and you have to think about the people who's cars are being stolen at some point. At one point he is confronted by his friends, he accuse him of being a user and a con man, only worried about his personal satisfaction and nothing else. Sal defends him, but in his heart he knows it's probably true. It's hard not to get wrapped up in the glory of Deans blaze, and you end up feeling life's pure excitement hit you like a lightning bolt when he is around. But he leaves a path of destruction, something he seems to be running from and never looking back at.
It's a cultural touchstone, and a bonafide classic, as well as a divisive and polarizing one. You either have the patience for the never ending exuberance and wild prose Kerouac spills out, or you don't. I'm glad I do, because it made this a fascinating and powerfully raw and visceral work. Bonus points to Will Patton for being the perfect reader for this story, giving it an amazing life force and propulsion. I feel it may have been a difficult read without him doing great on the audiobook.
Dean Moriarty is not the protagonist of the book, but he is what the book is about, for lack of a better phrase or term. Dean is a rambunctious, crazy, and wild man who travels the American landscape with friends and strangers in the eternal pursuit of kicks. Getting his kicks is, for him, achieving the very American dream, as it were, and finding his moments and swathes of grace to enshroud himself in and breathe in with fire and vigor that the people around him can only hang onto and become hurtled along with him in his mad voyage. He is the touchstone of everything wild and careless and free in the world (or at least the USA) and he attracts people who want to be like him like flies on sugar, and repels others like oil on water. Some get him (it), others don't. Truman Capote didn't, deriding the book by calling it typing, not writing. I feel like I understand Dean. I'd like to be him. That's not to say I would like to be his friend, or even be around him. That's not my life, but reading this book makes me feel, however briefly, that I wish it were.
So what's it about (the book)? It's about America, and the open road, and the burning youth and desire for freedom, and not much else. The story is told from the perspective of Sal, who is infatuated with Dean and tells his story in some kind of a crazy remembrance of himself and things that he felt and things that happened to him. He recounts his various adventures with Dean and other friends and lovers, relishing the times they had together traveling across the country there and back and all over again. It is a breathless, free roaming book full of little moments and unwavering momentum that never really breaks down. Nothing, and everything, seems to happen all the time, and it has the wild dash spirit of the characters lives. Apparently autobiographical, it is a keen insight into the mind of a madman, a man high on life, man!
But what is it really about? It is about a certain lifestyle, and a certain kind of person that can simultaneously be a loathsome detriment and a kind of crazy beauty and purity, like fire that is so alive yet so dangerous to touch. It's about being totally free, and the consequences that come with freedom. Dean is free, but if you look at his life, and simply look into the future a few years, you see an accident waiting to happen, one that is inevitable. The book doesn't dwell on it too much, but there is certainly a feeling of things turning out badly for the lives of the people Dean touches. He leaves a line of bastard children across the States like a trail of abandoned eggs waiting to go bad or break to easily. He steals cars, and you have to think about the people who's cars are being stolen at some point. At one point he is confronted by his friends, he accuse him of being a user and a con man, only worried about his personal satisfaction and nothing else. Sal defends him, but in his heart he knows it's probably true. It's hard not to get wrapped up in the glory of Deans blaze, and you end up feeling life's pure excitement hit you like a lightning bolt when he is around. But he leaves a path of destruction, something he seems to be running from and never looking back at.
It's a cultural touchstone, and a bonafide classic, as well as a divisive and polarizing one. You either have the patience for the never ending exuberance and wild prose Kerouac spills out, or you don't. I'm glad I do, because it made this a fascinating and powerfully raw and visceral work. Bonus points to Will Patton for being the perfect reader for this story, giving it an amazing life force and propulsion. I feel it may have been a difficult read without him doing great on the audiobook.
Rating: A-
WOW, great entry. It's a crazy book, you are at once admiring of the lifestyle and terrified by it.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful critique, full of insight and personal exploration. I can't help but think of the time in your life coming up when you will be exploring and growing leaps and bounds.
ReplyDelete