...
Show More
I liked this one. Better than Tristessa, at least.
The experience of reading deeper into Kerouac’s catalog than OTR is strange, ironic, absurd. These little books are so sad. The distance between the high wire prose style and the actual content is downright bizarre: this is essentially a book about Kerouac getting drunk with a bunch of his boys in SF, trying to maintain a relationship with a woman that he treats like shit. It doesn’t go well, obviously.
If the book feels like your drunk friend blathering on to you about some half-remembered half-tragedy, half-comedy, that’s intentional. The book was written in three days. That’s harder than it looks, but it does leave you questioning how the form meets the function. I always thought Kerouac’s books would be about Important Topics For Your Consideration. Turns out I was mistaken, but there’s something deeply human and relatable about what they actually are.
The racial politics of the book are difficult, and likely were then as well, if for different reasons.
The experience of reading deeper into Kerouac’s catalog than OTR is strange, ironic, absurd. These little books are so sad. The distance between the high wire prose style and the actual content is downright bizarre: this is essentially a book about Kerouac getting drunk with a bunch of his boys in SF, trying to maintain a relationship with a woman that he treats like shit. It doesn’t go well, obviously.
If the book feels like your drunk friend blathering on to you about some half-remembered half-tragedy, half-comedy, that’s intentional. The book was written in three days. That’s harder than it looks, but it does leave you questioning how the form meets the function. I always thought Kerouac’s books would be about Important Topics For Your Consideration. Turns out I was mistaken, but there’s something deeply human and relatable about what they actually are.
The racial politics of the book are difficult, and likely were then as well, if for different reasons.
