Kerouac's On The Road

 I read Jack Kerouac's On The Road for the first time just before starting college. I had heard of it, so I thought I should read it. The time is fixed in my head because of a professor going on about how she adored the novel. I did not. This may be the start of my "Chuck Berry Theory of Influences" where familiarity with followers and copies demeans the worth of the original. I read On The Road as a road trip novel and I had seen plenty of stories like that - although they might have included marijuana (that is, except Easy Rider). I re-read the novel while in prison, a bit more than a 30-year gap, and was more impressed by the language. But I was still not so impressed about guys without jobs driving across the country, having sex and partying. Very good, but not earth-shattering for me. 

What has improved my thinking about the novel are these segments from a Yale University course on the American Novel.

 

 

I missed the love of Sal for Dean. Or maybe I just filed it away as a matter of fact. I cannot get away from the nvoel being an ode to a time past, as nostalgia. Yet, my conscience reminds me, it is also a message of hope in America being the land of the free. That is not something to sneeze about in this day and age.

 Your mileage may vary.

 Also, for all of my cavilling about this novel, I stuck Dean and Sal into my "Chasing Ashes"; even giving Dean an important speaking part.