On the Road

I finally finished my first complete reading of Jack Kerouac's "On the Road." The first attempt to the read the book came during junior year of high school. At that point in my life, I related to nothing in the book. I had done no traveling, lived a rather insulated life, and found myself hating his stream of conscious writing style.

This read was amazing however. I absolutely fell in love with the drawn out descriptions of Americana. The descriptions of long nights in Denver with Neil Cassady (Dean Moriarty) and Allen Ginsberg (Carlo Marx) really remind me of the late night sessions at Bukowski's with Steve and DJ. I got really bummed that Steve has moved back to Syracuse to explore his dreams of working as a journalist in random cities throughout this vast earth. However, I found myself rejoicing by the end of the book due to the fact that Steve living far away is a great excuse to travel!

It is difficult to explain the genius of Kerouac. Like I mentioned earlier, I never saw it until now. One beautiful aspect of literature that I don't hear many people discussing, is the idea that a good book will always hit you differently every time you read it. I recently re-read the Unbearable Lightness of Being, Slaughterhouse Five, and Night. I had read all three books in high school and have claimed to LOVE them ever since. Upon re-reading them, I've established mental connections to the characters of the books that I only dreamed possible in the early days of reading.

Here are a few quotes I truly found fascinating from On the Road:

"What difference does it make after all?-anonymity in the world of men is better than fame in heaven, for what's heaven? what's earth? All in the mind."


"The one thing that we yearn for in our living days, that makes us sigh and groan and undergo sweet nauseas of all kinds, is the remembrance of some lost bliss that was probably experienced in the womb and can only be reproduced (though we hate to admit it) in death."

I move back to Boston in a week or so... let's talk-let's fantasize, let's drink to happiness, health and life itself (for it is beautiful).