2006 books

[peteryoung]

13) Jack Kerouac, On the Road, 1957 [ RE-READ ]
The 'big deal' about this book was mostly lost on me when I read it back in 1978. This time around having since learned more about Kerouac I can understand what set him off on his road back and forth across the US, but the excess of stimulants still leaves me non-plussed. Neal Cassady, incarnated here as Dean Moriarty and being both the heart and tao of the book and the whole Beat Generation, was the focus around whom the more observant Kerouac bracketed his own search in the character of Sal Paradise. There are some great passages and the last trip into Mexico feels like an encore to an already epic story, the whole of which is written in rather sentimental style compared to his later 'stream of consciousness' approach. I still think he was intellectually lazy in comparison to Burroughs or Ginsberg but On the Road – or more specifically Dean Moriarty himself – still takes you on a fast and thrill-seeking ride, the impetus of which is hard to shake off.