on the road

Wow.

My reaction to this book: wow.

Holy crap, Kerouac is a genius.. and I wish he had entered my life sooner. I really, really do.

Now, here's why I chose Kerouac: some of you may know my fascination with a Mr. Ben Gibbard, the leader singer of a wonderful band named Death Cab for Cutie. Now, he wrote this song for the album Narrow Stairs called Bixby Canon Bridge, which was about his journey to the cabin in Big Sur that Kerouac spent days in (Side note: with my continuing growing knowledge, I have realized that there are actually quite a few references to Kerouac in Death Cab's work, I just had no idea). It was all about hoping to be hit with inspiration, but only finding disappointment. I'm sure we've all been there: traveling somewhere we've desperately wanted to go because we think it'll be this life changing experience.. but it's just another place. Anyway, this is when I first heard about Ben's idol as a writer: Jack Kerouac. I had heard abut him before.. but never in much detail and I had no idea who he was, or what he meant to his generation. Then, about a year later, Ben Gibbard did an album with Jay Farrar entitled One Fast Move or I'm Gone: Music from Kerouac's Big Sur. Both of the singer/songwriters were influenced by Kerouac in a VERY deep way, and the quality of the album reflects that. All the lyrics are taken straight from Kerouac's novel, Big Sur (Ben's personal favorite), and before I had even read Kerouac I was in love with his words (although with Ben singing I would fall in love with anything). This then brings me to last August, when I made my list. I knew the impact Kerouac had had on my favorite writer.. why wouldn't I want to read his work? So I jumped at reading On the Road and it was one of the ones I was most looking forward to.

Now, I trust Ben's judgment. I really do. He is one of the most brilliant writers I've ever encountered. As a writer, I'm awed by his talents. And yeah, I was expecting a lot out of Kerouac. But what I actually experienced was far more than I had ever expected. And yes, this book is an experience.

On the Road, in it's entirety, is a journey. It follows Sal (Clarification: the main character's name is Sal Paradise, but this is a book taking directly from his own experiences.. think of it like a biography with a different name for the main character) as he travels from New York to California and back again (multiple times) with his friend Dean. I would liken Kerouac's writing style to more of a stream of consciousness approach: it is fragmented, disjointed, crazy, and absolutely beautiful. He has a way of capturing people in their entirety: Kerouac has this way of seeing through everything to the depth's of the soul, and making even the most ugly and despicable person beautiful. You get the sense that he understands that humans are intrinsically flawed and still sees them as these fragile and beautiful people, and the more flawed the more beautiful.

There is also, for me, a hugely nostalgic feel about this book even though I was about.. 40 years away from being born. It makes me sad for our generation and future generations. Gone are the days of traveling across the country on a whim, with just a vague inclination of where you're going (and possibly a road map), and the promise of the open road. Stopping where you will, interacting with the people across the country.. I can't even describe it. These days, it's too easy to plan from point A to point B taking this road to that road and not stopping. Everyone has cars, no one has time, everyone has a plan.

Kerouac has no fear. Half the time he picks up his life, travels across the country, and doesn't even really know why. He has no money, but he's inclined to think "I'll figure it out when I get there." I wish I was brave enough to do that.

To put it simply, Kerouac's writing is some of the most beautifully honest, heart-breaking, and simple prose I've ever read.. and the fact that he wrote it in three weeks on 24 sheets of paper taped together on his type writer.. the work of a genius. I find the writing impressive in an entirely different way than anything I've read so far on this list.
I finished this novel last night. What did I buy after work today? You guessed it.. The Big Sur. I will read it after my next Classics selection.. Passing by Nella Larsen.

I'll leave you with this:
"Dean took out other pictures. I realized these were all snapshots which our children would look at someday with wonder, thinking their parents had lived smooth, well-ordered, stabilized-within-the-photo lives and got up in the morning to walk proudly on the sidewalks of life, never dreaming the raggedy madness and riot of our actual lives, or actual night, the hell of it, the senseless nightmare road. All of it inside endless and beginningless emptiness. Pitiful forms of ignorance. "Good-by, good-by." Dean walked off in the long red dusk. Locomotives smoked and reeled above him. His shadow followed him, it aped his walk and thoughts and very being. He turned and waved coyly, bashfully. He gave me the boomer's highball, he jumped up and and down, he yelled something I didn't catch. He ran around in a circle. All the time he came closer to the concrete corner of the railroad overpass. He made one last signal. I waved back. Suddenly he bent to his life and walked quickly out of sight. I gaped into the bleakness of my own days. I had an awful long way to go too." - Jack Kerouac, On the Road