Jack Kerouac tells the story of his adventures hitchhiking, driving (cars owned and stolen), riding trains, and walking across the country (also to Mexico) multiple times over a several year period. He travels with several friends, (some famous as I understand it) the most continuous of whom is Neal—Jack’s loony addict friend who is addicted to sex, drugs, getting married and stealing. Neal simply can’t figure life out but makes traveling a real adventure for Jack and all those who stumble in and out of the story.
The edition of On the Road I read was “The Original Scroll” which was the author’s first draft. It varies from later editions in several ways. The original draft contains the “real” names of the people in the stories and also was written on a literal scroll. It was written in one big three hundred page long paragraph. Whether that’s because Jack didn’t know how to mark a new paragraph on a typewriter or whether he just didn’t care (which seems more likely) I don’t know. The lack of punctuation made the book tough to follow, fragmented, and rough, but was a very interesting read.
Fittingly, the book came to a halt mid-sentence. Apparently, there’s a note at the end of the scroll which reads “DOG ATE”. This edition does slap a fabricated (from the 1957 edition) ending in as an appendix so that readers aren’t left hanging. The ending gave me some insight into what the “real” book reads like as it has a completely different feel from the rough draft which was more artistically written and better developed. All in all, however, I’m glad I read the rough draft, as it was very organic and likely more true to reality than was the revised version. This was an enjoyable read—although devoid of plot twists or any real intensity—but it was a leisurely and entertaining story.
Favorite Quotes: "This is the Story of America. Everybody's doing what they think they're supposed to do." (pg 170)
"I have finally taught Neal that he can do anything he wants, become mayor of Denver, marry a millionairess or become the greatest poet since Rimbaud. But he keeps rushing out to see the midget auto races." (pg 145)
"Somebody had tipped the American continent like a pinball machine and all the goofballs had come rolling to LA in the southwest corner." (pg 206)
If this were a movie, I'd rate it: R...or NC-17 depending on how you chose to make it.
Overall Grade: B-
Would I recommend this book to my friends: Yes.
I was confused by the name Neal there because I "read" the revised version in which Neal is Dean. Does Neal say "Yes, yes" like Dean?
ReplyDeleteYes, Neal is Dean...and yes, Neal says "yes, yes, yes" all of the time. I was so confused when we talked about the book right after I started reading it because you were talking about people who I didn't think I'd read about...then I figured out that the names were different.
ReplyDeleteCrap, I forgot you have that security word thing and my comment got erased!
ReplyDeleteAnyway, in the version I read the guy's name was Dean. Oh and I didn't read this book but I did let Matt Dillon read it to me on a road trip. Anyway, there is a lot more of the real Jack Kerouac in Dean/Neal than there is in the narrator. I happened upon a biography of Kerouac once and started to read. It was pretty clear pretty quickly that he was Dean and the narrator may have been made up. I found this very interesting and it improved my opinion of him as a writer a lot.
Sorry your comment got erased. Do I have a choice on the security thing? I'll have to look into that.
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed the review and thanks for sharing about your experience with the biography--I didn't realize that Kerouac was the crazy one...not surprising I guess.