On the Road

Fabulous book. Have to admit that long about page 200 I started flipping to the end to see how much I had left to read—Sal’s trips across and around then down through America can be dizzying—but then I hit Part Three, Chapter 4, when he and his crew spend a night listening to jazz in San Francisco. Brilliant. So is their stay with Frankie in Denver and the trip to Mexico. Description is...more

Fabulous book. Have to admit that long about page 200 I started flipping to the end to see how much I had left to read—Sal’s trips across and around then down through America can be dizzying—but then I hit Part Three, Chapter 4, when he and his crew spend a night listening to jazz in San Francisco. Brilliant. So is their stay with Frankie in Denver and the trip to Mexico. Description is rich, written for the senses, clean, easy to take in. Male-female relationships are dead-on. Dean is a show-stealer and a spaz and it’s heartbreaking to watch him go from searcher-for-the-meaning-of-life to just a f*ck-up (which, apparently, he’s been all along). Sal is about the best narrator I’ve ever read. The prose is rhythmic, Kerouac combines words you don’t normally see together: “wild cinnamon,” “soft air,” “narrow romantic streets.” It’s clear he’s playing with language; aspiring writers should read it for this reason alone. Was lucky to see the manuscript (120-foot-long typewritten scroll) as it toured the world between 2004 and 2009 and made a stop at Marquette University in Milwaukee. Now that I’ve read the book, wish I could see it again. Jim Irsay, owner of the Indianapolis Colts, owns it; he purchased it for $2.4 million, according to Wikipedia.   hide