On the Mind

A few months ago, I read On the Road by Jack Kerouac. It was a few weeks after going on a road trip across the USA, from New York to San Francisico. After reading it, I thought the book was good, but not great. I could not quite work out all these people waxing lyrical over it. I could see the themes of freedom, alienation and the Beat lifestyle. I read about Manifest Destiny, jazz and "tea", but it didn't quite work for me. I also could not understand why people found it so hard to "get" either. There was nothing to "get".

But Kerouac stayed with me. Like an ink blot on my mind it grew. It started invading my thoughts and looking at me in my surroundings. Just lingering. Those Marlboro cigarette bill boards look like deserts in Texas. Just little reminders. Friends is set in New York. Thinking about jazz bars, empty skies and friends going to Denver. Like a mosaic, bits and pieces almost randomly scattered.

Last week I bought Bob Dylan's new release, Live 75, and this reminded me of a photo of Dylan and beat poet Allen Ginsberg at Kerouac's grave. Then today someone mentioned On the Road as a good book to read over Christmas.

Something clicked in my brain. The picture was complete. In an instant things fell into place. A new dawn, spring had arrived. I went onto Google and searched for Jack Kerouac and On the Road. I re-read excerpts from the book. This time I could see what others had been talking about. It started making sense. The word rang true and glowed like coals. Freedom, destiny, the road, life, alienation, Beat... I am awash with things I'd never seen before...

On the Road is about Sal Paradise and his road trips with Dean Moriarty across America.

"You'd be surprised how little I knew even up to yesterday." - Jack Kerouac.