On The Road - Jack Kerouac

A short time after he and his wife split up, Sal Paradise a young and innocent writer longing for fresh experience, met the eccentric, spontaneous, "slightly crazed" Dean Moriarty on a "breathless, exuberant ride back and forth" life on the road across th highways, from city to city, gas stations, bars, cheap hotels, east west of America.

 

Along the way encountering countless cast of characters ( poet Carlo Marx, Dean's 3 wives, Maryloy, Camille, Inez, Sal's brief romance with a young mexican girl...to a young mexican pimp Victor among others )"Their hedonistic search for release or fulfilment though drinks, sex, drugs and jazz becomes an exploration of personal freedom an their own self.

With a vivid description of life on the road. Jack Kerouac blended fiction and real life ( part of the story was based on his real life experiences as a lonesome traveller ) that many critics called "a novel that defined the new beat generation, its tremendous impact....made him famous overnight"

Acclaimed writer William Burroughs adds "On the Road sold a trillion levis and a million espresso machines, and also sent countless kids on the road..the alienation, the restlessness, the dissatisfaction were already there waiting when Kerouac pointed out the road"

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Although this is a tale or an example of the American dream, the message is clear to me, life is meant to be one great adventure, either by staying on one place or continously moving from one place to another, meeting friends and strangers that interest you as Sal Paradise aptly puts it

"because the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middles you see the centrelight pop and everybody goes AWW" - on the road ( wow what a powerful paragraph, i like that "burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles" thing )

Reading this book takes you on a massive imaginative journey, from Sal hitchhiking 10,000 miles from NY- Denver ( to meet the gang ) back to NY, joining Dean to SF, New Orleans, Denver, Texas and countless cities culminating in Mexico.

Where Sal describes one moment on the road, while they are all getting high on some Mexican Marijuana

" in muriad pricklings of heavenly radiation, i had to struggle to see Dean's figure, and he looked like God, I was so high i had to lean my head back on the seat, the bouncing of the car sent shivers of ecstasy through me, the mere thought of looking out the window to Mexico" - on the road.

If you are a fan of life and a great piece of literature...this is a must read for you...