Introduction: I'm constantly searching for new fiction to read, I'm digesting it like some crazed literary Cookie Monster and it's a treat to read different things, not just sci-fi, or war novels, or political pundit rhetoric etc. but mix it up to keep in interesting.  Well, Brian (the creator of the site) has cited to me many times Kerouac ideas and persuasions and come to find out this is one of his favorite novels.  So, he lent me his 50th anniversary copy of the novel (to which I keep in a plastic bag at all times to preserve the pristine condition I received it in.)

Plot Synopsis: Our narrator, Sal Paradise travels across the United States 4 times each way, either by hitchhiking, catching rides, driving in cars with some of his unique friends, including his favorite companion, Dean Moriarity who exemplifies the "Beat" way of thinking; everything is fun and a kick, according to Dean.  The book is a chronicling of Sal's adventures, travels, parties, nightclubs and all night conversations during the time in which he is working on a novel for publishing.

Thoughts: When reading this book, to which I really had no idea as to what it was about, two other famous and favorite novels of mine come to mind and you may not see the parallels right away but let me throw them at you: Catch-22 by Joseph Heller and The Lord of the Rings by Tolkien.  Two completely different novels with different subject matters but I see so much of them in this book.  When reading from the viewpoint of Sal Paradise (great name, by the way) you can't help but draw similarities to Yossarian, the main character of Catch 22, a US pilot mired in World War II desperately trying to fly enough missions to get out of his situation.  Everywhere around him craziness is going on, wild and off the wall things are said and done and he seems to either be oblivious to it or used to it and we see so much of that in Sal, whose long list of kooky friends are constantly going off on adventures and having conversations that don't seem to tie in together.  The parallel to fantasy's highest fiction is the detail in landscape and the care given to it's description.  The films are all about action and grand dramatic scenes but the books nearly read as a traveling guide because Tolkien not only describes, in the finest detail, where his characters are but the history of the place.  In On the Road, there's tons of that going on and the enthusiasm that Sal and Dean Moriarity show in all the places they go and what they're like and who parties there shows the same love of the land that Tolkien's characters do in his novels.

Also not knowing anything about Kerouac before reading this, you get the impression that he himself is his the protagonist and that he has taken these same car rides with these same people, possibly even the exact trips that are described in the novel.  There's so much passion pouring out of the pages for life and looking at things that you are reeled just having stepped outside and seeing the gray hued sky and the dew green grass after taking in such large helpings of philosophical ponderings on the going on's of life and what's in it.  My favorite scenes in the novel are vast and yet so engrossing that it's hard not to become apart of them despite the sometimes "in- time" consciousness of the language; when Sal strikes out on his own and joins his little senorita out in the cotton fields and his tale of making something for them, even if it's small and meaningless in the grand scheme of things, there's still a wonder to it because he's this other person and no one there knows he was this boozehound party goer in New York  merely a year before hand.  Then, there's the jazz scene; well, there's several of them but the one I'm referring to is after Dean is excised from his wife Camille (again)  and they join love lorn Galatea Dunkel and others at a snazzy jazz club and Dean is literally standing in front of the horn players screaming "yes, yes, blow" and other such beat-nik prose.  The language flows all over the page like an improved musical solo, sentences and words mix with quotations and different characters thoughts flow in and out and it's all very rhythmic and fun and inspiring.

The neat thing about the book is, with any character, you see an overlying arch of their personality through the beginning of the book until the end and with these characters, nothing much about their core changes.  In Sal's case, he matures, not necessarily grows up because he still likes to party and go out to jazz clubs but overtime he is able to leave much of his friends and their wacky frivolty behind and not feel remorseful.  With Dean, things happen to him throughout the story, he gets married (twice), he has children, he injures his finger, gets sicknesses, but nothing about him changes, as if he doesn't realize that with growing up comes responsibility because he still drives through 10 states when the mood catches him, leaving his family behind to fend for themselves.  It's this behavior that Sal so admired and sought out for in Dean as a companion in the beginning that makes him indifferent, pity or even angry towards Dean in the end.

Conclusion:  Very few people that get a chance to read the site actually know Brian, in person, but I can tell you that this book is the epitome of his state of mind, after reading it.  I see so much of him and his views mired in the language and attitude of this novel that it's actually stunning to me.  The "Beat" way of thinking seems like such a journey away from the Dharmanistic theories that Kerouac studied but I'm guessing it has something to do with the flow of life and keeping a smile on your face and faith in your heart, faith in something, maybe just that the world will keep spinning around and every day is a new chance to do something good and have fun.  Being married now and being a father, those things often creep into my head and I wonder if Kerouac was married and if he was, was it just another fun time or was it a growing pain because from what I can see in the novel, it just sort of hits Dean as another venture he went on, another groovy time to be had.  But, obviously I see a progression because Brian himself has become engulfed in the writings of Kerouac and the philosophies and he himself is married and loves his wife very much, which I think Sal and Dean would both find interesting and great because life moves on and grows and evolves while still holding onto some part of it's own past, or else it would cease to be anything.  I would suggest if you have any of that wild energy, or longing to just drop everything in your life and go, read this novel because it's a good quell for those inhibitions without actually doing it- if not, some people may have trouble getting into it.  As for a grade, I give it an A.

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- Jessie