On The Road by Jack Kerouac (book review and outfit post)

 

When I picked up On the Road the first thing that struck me was the unique way it was written. I was mesmerized by the Kerouac's prose that felt so much as poetry. The novel is dynamic, one event happening after another, one crisis followed by another.  If you miss even one paragraph (because your mind wonders someplace else) , you may totally got lost in the events. There is something very raw about this novel, perhaps because it was supposedly written in only 3 weeks. This strange mix of poetry and rawness really fascinated me. Naturally, I knew about Kerouac, the beat generation and all that. I read with fascination and interest until I felt that something was bugging me. Something didn't feel right. What is that, you might ask?

“I realized these were all the snapshots which our children would look at someday with wonder, thinking their parents had lived smooth, well-ordered lives and got up in the morning to walk proudly on the sidewalks of life, never dreaming the raggedy madness and riot of our actual lives, our actual night, the hell of it, the senseless emptiness.”
Jack Kerouac, On the Road

The novel is brilliantly written, the characters feel very much alive and there is so much freshness in it.

 You can almost hear the jazz music, smell the fresh morning air somewhere in American wilderness, feel like you're there in that car travelling with the protagonist of this novel.

 You can feel the excitement of the characters, their nervous energy and their search for something.

 Everything is happening so fast, but it feels right. The words flow but they have a sense of direction. 

“I woke up as the sun was reddening; and that was the one distinct time in my life, the strangest moment of all, when I didn't know who I was - I was far away from home, haunted and tired with travel, in a cheap hotel room I'd never seen, hearing the hiss of steam outside, and the creak of the old wood of the hotel, and footsteps upstairs, and all the sad sounds, and I looked at the cracked high ceiling and really didn't know who I was for about fifteen strange seconds. I wasn't scared; I was just somebody else, some stranger, and my whole life was a haunted life, the life of a ghost.”
Jack Kerouac, On the Road

Kerouac based his characters on real people. The novel focuses on adventures of two young men, Dean and Sal. Dean was based on Cassady, a friend of Kerouac while Sal was based on Kerouac himself. At first I found their friendship to be terribly touching, but as the novel progresses I started to wonder about it. 

What was Dean really like? Was he really a dark angel? Was Sal a dark angel? What was his impact on people? What is the nature of relationship between Sal and Dean? Their connection seems to be the foundation stone of the novel. 

All the other relationships seem to come and go, but they friendship is what remains. Or is it? The more I read, the more it all seemed uncertain, but I kept my concentration on the plot because it does take a focus mind to follow all that madness. 

Fortunately, this type of madness is so compelling to read about ...perhaps it is because of the way the novel is written and maybe just maybe it is because it is pure at heart. Whatever the reason may be,  it makes you feel like you can't resist it.

“Sal, we gotta go and never stop going 'till we get there.'
'Where we going, man?'
'I don't know but we gotta go.”

“Soon it got dusk, a grapy dusk, a purple dusk over tangerine groves and long melon fields; the sun the color of pressed grapes, slashed with burgandy red, the fields the color of love and Spanish mysteries.”

 

It is like the writer has discovered a new way of writing and he himself is crazy about it. 

You feel like you must like it as well. What could I possibly dislike? Yet, as I progresses I felt a feeling of tiredness coming over me. As nearer I was to finishing this novel, the more tired with it I felt.

 How can a masterpiece make me feel tired?  I was puzzled with my own reaction to it. Who am I to say there is something wrong with the novel? 

After all, it is considered (by many) to be one of the best novels of the last century. I admire the way it is written, the boldness of it. I'm sure that the author experimented with different techniques of writing.

 It is clear he had put so much energy into this novel. 

He may have written it in only 3 weeks ( I personally believe that), but he must have been carrying it in his soul for much longer. 

They say Kerouac used to carry little notebooks and write stuff down during his travels. 

That explains that natural flow this novel has. I also read that he was inspired by long letters written by his friend Cassidy and that he even used parts of them in his writing. 

Autobiographical writing can be tricky, but as far as writing goes I think he got away with it. As I said, I do think the novel is exceptionally well written.

But, and yes...there's a but. All that said and done, I had felt tired of this novel before I finished it. 

“So in America when the sun goes down and I sit on the old broken-down river pier watching the long, long skies over New Jersey and sense all that raw land that rolls in one unbelievable huge bulge over to the West Coast, and all that road going, and all the people dreaming in the immensity of it, and in Iowa I know by now the children must be crying in the land where they let the children cry, and tonight the stars'll be out, and don't you know that God is Pooh Bear? the evening star must be drooping and shedding her sparkler dims on the prairie, which is just before the coming of complete night that blesses the earth, darkens all the rivers, cups the peaks and folds the final shore in, and nobody, nobody knows what's going to happen to anybody besides the forlorn rags of growing old, I think of Dean Moriarty, I even think of Old Dean Moriarty the father we never found, I think of Dean Moriarty.”

As fascinating as this novel is, I must say I expected more. I expected more depth, more growth, more answers and  less hysteria, madness and semi-conclusions. 

Yes, I do think the characters are described perfectly and very convincing but what is it all about?

 They are flawed, but what are their redeeming qualities? Kerouac insisted on Catholic mysticism, but I don't see in the novel.

 I'm sorry, but I've read a lot of catholic mystics  and I don't see any mystical experiences in this novel.

 Poetical? Yes. Strong? Yes. Raw? Yes. Powerful in its rawness and poetry? Yes. Yes. Yes. Spiritual? I'm sorry but I'm not so sure. 

I believe his spiritual experiences might have been somewhat imagined. If not imagined, then exaggerated. It seemed that Kerouac imagined himself and his friends to be saints of some-sort. 

It takes a lot more than contempt for the world to make one a saint. 'Experiences' don't make you a saint, not even 'spiritual experiences'. It is how you deal with those experiences and how you build yourself.

That all being said, I must honestly say that I liked this novel. Something didn't seem right, but maybe that is how it should be. 

I think it is a good sign that it made me think so much. 

This review took forever to write. I liked the novel but I'm not sure that I can say that I loved it, perhaps because I expected more. 

I could bet around the bush, but I won't. I find it lacks depth. 

It is not that the characters are immoral. 

I don't think that literature is supposed to send a 'moral message'. 

The protagonist of this novel are certainly often so selfish that it is unbelievable.  

That's not what has been bugging me, although it might be one of the things that made me feel tired while I was reading this novel. 

Not that I didn't enjoy reading it, yet I did feel  at times like I have to invest a special effort to read it.

 The writing feels fluid, but it is fluid in an irregular way, if that make sense. 

Imagine sea when there is a storm.

 Reading it felt like sailing while there is a storm. That's the best metaphor I can think of at the moment.

“And for just a moment I had reached the point of ecstasy that I always wanted to reach, which was the complete step across chronological time into timeless shadows, and wonderment in the bleakness of the mortal realm, and the sensation of death kicking at my heels to move on, with a phantom dogging its own heels, and myself hurrying to a plank where all the angels dove off and flew into the holy void of uncreated emptiness, the potent and inconceivable radiancies shining in bright Mind Essence, innumerable lotuslands falling open in the magic mothswarm of heaven. I could hear an indescribable seething roar which wasn't in my ear but everywhere and had nothing to do with sounds. I realized that I had died and been reborn numberless times but just didn't remember especially because the transitions from life to death and back to life are so ghostly easy, a magical action for naught, like falling asleep and waking up again a million times, the utter casualness and deep ignorance of it. I realized it was only because of the stability of the intrinsic Mind that these ripples of birth and death took place, like the action of the wind on a sheet of pure, serene, mirror-like water. I felt sweet, swinging bliss, like a big shot of heroin in the mainline vein; like a gulp of wine late in the afternoon and it makes you shudder; my feet tingled. I thought I was going to die the very next moment. But I didn't die...”

 Jack Kerouac, On the Road

The author claims the protagonists are on a spiritual journey and I do believe he thinks that but I'm not sure whether it is really a novel about finding God.

 They may be set to search for spiritual experiences but often they end up searching for kicks, don't they? 

Experimenting with and misusing drugs and alcohol to get their 'experiences'. 

I'm not saying that anyone who made mistakes is a bad person, but their craziness is a bit too much at times. 

 Too selfish, too self-centered.  There was even a point in the book when I thought to myself that these two guys are frustrated latent homosexuals (Cassady attraction to teenage girls seems to suggest some problems) but I may be wrong. 

I'm probably wrong, but I must admit there was a cynic in me that reawakened a few times while I was reading this (and I'm not that keen on cynicism so maybe I was even irritated it awakened).

 It is obviously not as simple as that and their problems wouldn't disappear if our protagonists hooked up. What is clear, however, is that they have a very strange relationship with women. 

What is really changed at the end of the novel? What is its message? I'm not sure. That is the part that bugs me. 

Not the immorality of the characters or their selfish actions ( and yet with all their craziness I must admit there is innocence in them) but the feeling that the novel is lacking a message. 

Are characters a message of their own? Do they capture the essence of the beat? Are our protagonists the purity that needs no explanation?  Perhaps not as much as the author himself proposes, but there is purity in their hearts. 

It is not a spiritual journey, but it is an emotional and touching one. 

In the end, I'm happy I've read this novel and I do think it is a fine work of literature.

 I just don't think it is one of the best novels of the last century. Saying it is might just be pushing it too hard.

Now, about the outfit. This is partly a fashion blog and I really don't mind saying something about this outfit. This winter jacket I have had for a long time and I still love it. This blazer was bought at second hand shop in Split. It is one of my favourite second hand purchases. The jeans and the shoes were bought this month and I'm happy with them as well. I think the star of this combo is this red cap. It was one of the first things my husband bought for me. He brought it one night when we met for drinks. We were just starting to date and I thought it was such an original present. Now, that I think of it, my husband was always like that, original without even trying to be original. No flowers and fancy presents, always something from the heart and at the right time. Very different man from the protagonist of the novel I reviewed today.  It is surprising how much men find it to connect with women. Well, fortunately my husband isn't one of them.

“As we crossed the Colorado-Utah border I saw God in the sky in the form of huge gold sunburning clouds above the desert that seemed to point a finger at me and say, "Pass here and go on, you're on the road to heaven.”
Jack Kerouac, On the Road

“Besides which, she would never understand me because I like too many things and get all confused and hung-up running from one falling star to another till I drop. This is the night, what it does to you. I had nothing to offer anybody except my own confusion.”
 Jack Kerouac, On the Road

make up information : foundation- L'oreal True Match, eyebrow: Candice eyebrow kit, eyeshadow: Essence,  mascara: Essence, lip pencil: Essence femme fatale, lipstick: Avon

 

outfit information: jacket-no name, blazer: second hand, turtleneck- mana, jeans- piazza Italia, shoes-no name, bag- no name

“But they need to worry and betray time with urgencies false and otherwise, purely anxious and whiny, their souls really won't be at peace unless they can latch to an established and proven worry and having once found it they assume facial expressions to fit and go with it, which is, you see, unhappiness, and all the time it all flies by them and they know it and that too worries them no end.” Jack Kerouac, On the Road

2024 UPDATE- MORE LINKS TO VISITS TO BUNA RECREATIONAL PARK IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA  AND OTHER TRAVEL RECOMMENDATIONS

THE ISLAND OF THE MISSING TREES BY ELIF SHAFAK (BOOK REVIEW AND RECOMMENDATION) (modaodaradosti.blogspot.com)

WHAT TO SEE IN HERZEGOVINA? THESE TWO FORTRESSES AND NATIONAL PARKS ARE A GREAT CHOICE! (modaodaradosti.blogspot.com)

Painting On Clothes and Accessories With Textile Paints: The Pros and The Cons (Outfit proposal of the day: Magnenta with red accents) (modaodaradosti.blogspot.com)

If you are thinking about visiting Bosnia and Herzegovina, do not neglect the area around Buna river (only 14 km from Mostar!). Buna and Bunica are two small rivers that join at one point and then they flow west for about 10 km and into the famous Neretva river. The area around these two rivers is lovely. I already wrote about this place a dozen of times on my blog, so not to repeat myself, I will leave you link to my previous visits and you can check them out if you're interested.

1. You can read about one of my earliest visits here (2013)
2. You can read about my encounter with Hoopoe bird here (2013)
3. You can see an outfit post with Buna in the background here (2013)
3.You can read about spring time and my love of flowers here (2017)
4. You can read about my most recent visit here (2017)
5. You can read about winter magic in Buna revisited post here (2016)
5. You can read about summer magic here (2015)

A SHORT VISIT TO BUNA NEAR MOSTAR (BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA) (modaodaradosti.blogspot.com)

VISIT BUNICA RECREATIONAL AREA WITH ME! WINTER 2022 (modaodaradosti.blogspot.com)

TWO LOCATIONS: BUNA AND MOSTAR

A SHORT VISIT TO BUNA 2020  & SPRING STYLING 2021 & ANNIVERSARY VISIT SUMMER 2021

“But then they danced down the streets like dingledodies, and I shambled after as I’ve been doing all my life after people who interest me, 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 middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes ‘Awww!” Jack Kerouac, On the Road

Are you STILL curious about the location? This is river Buna, it is situated near Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is the perfect place for a little getaway. I blogged about it many many times. I visit it very often, so it only makes sense that it appears on my blog regularly and repeatedly. You can visit my old post here,  here, here , here , here and here if you want to see more. That is all for today. Thank you for reading and have a lovely weekend!