RexLegendi reviewed Kerouac Jack by Jack Kerouac
Review of 'Kerouac Jack ' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
Reading On the Road (1957) was not the enriching experience I had hoped for, but thanks to the proper foreword, I did get a sense of American post-war Beat culture.
Initially inspired by Thomas Wolfe ([b:Look Homeward, Angel|29350627|Look Homeward, Angel|Thomas Wolfe|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1456573882l/29350627.SY75.jpg|1156378]), Jack Kerouac (1922-1969) struck out in a new direction. On the Road became a ‘roman à clef’, featuring some key figures from the Beat movement. I was delighted to learn that Kerouac originally had something like [b:Don Quixote|3836|Don Quixote|Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1546112331l/3836.SX50.jpg|121842] in mind, but it didn’t work out that way. Instead, the novel contains a continuous stream of trifling events: Sal Paradise and his friends driving or hitchhiking through the country, looking for work and women, stealing money and cars, using alcohol and drugs, being broke.
Of course, I intended to read this novel through the eye of the young author, who …
Reading On the Road (1957) was not the enriching experience I had hoped for, but thanks to the proper foreword, I did get a sense of American post-war Beat culture.
Initially inspired by Thomas Wolfe ([b:Look Homeward, Angel|29350627|Look Homeward, Angel|Thomas Wolfe|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1456573882l/29350627.SY75.jpg|1156378]), Jack Kerouac (1922-1969) struck out in a new direction. On the Road became a ‘roman à clef’, featuring some key figures from the Beat movement. I was delighted to learn that Kerouac originally had something like [b:Don Quixote|3836|Don Quixote|Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1546112331l/3836.SX50.jpg|121842] in mind, but it didn’t work out that way. Instead, the novel contains a continuous stream of trifling events: Sal Paradise and his friends driving or hitchhiking through the country, looking for work and women, stealing money and cars, using alcohol and drugs, being broke.
Of course, I intended to read this novel through the eye of the young author, who rebels against strict morals and seeks freedom and adventure. I quickly grew tired of the narrative, however. Firstly, it is rather boring: events simply follow one another, without any significant development. Secondly, the characters are too antipathetic. They seem full of themselves but hardly reflect on their environment or their role in it. This is especially true of Dean Moriarty, a selfish player who prefers pleasure to responsibility. A sign of the times, perhaps, but I had hoped for a little more. In the end, I couldn’t help thinking that Kerouac’s freedom is in fact an educated straight white man’s freedom. I’m happy to move on.