You must accept this to appreciate the novel, even if you sympathize with the women yelling "cad."Įditor Howard Cunnell explains how "Kerouac writes to be understood the road is the path of life and life is a journey." (25) One of the oldest tales, but the "heart-felt speech" (in Allen Ginsberg's phrase) rings true as his attempt to capture a more demotic, and also demonic, marriage of the rushed prose transports of Joyce, Celine, Melville and Dostoevsky with a raw, American vernacular. Yet, as the figure of Jack notes, Neal inspires the rest of his followers to imagine, and try if for a bit, the wayward life. I found his character tiresome as the journeys wore on until he turned thrice-married, thrice-divorced, living with his second wife, and with four children scattered. This book's celebration of "con-man angel" Neal Cassady's familiar to most readers even before they begin. It's a pivot between the wartime duty & conformist necessity and the individualist, rebellious reaction that would turn into the culture of teenagers, rock, be-bop, and fads. What may be overlooked is the time this novel takes place: 1947-49. Not three weeks on a roll of teletype paper but nearly a decade in the making, this "prose narrative" celebrates the myth that would become the Beats.
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