Last night I finished reading ‘On the Road’ by Jack Kerouac. Several intelligent and creative friends of mine had recommended it to me but it wasn’t until my closest friend (a writer I’m confident you’ll soon be familiar with) called Kerouac one of his favorite authors that I actually took notice and picked up a copy from a second hand book store.
At first I didn’t think much of it, but as I got to the end of the first part and into the second I realized it’s genius. It’s written in the same way that we live life, filtering out or glossing over so many details and events and then spending a considerable amount of time experiencing and studying others.
Just like life though, you find that some of the seemingly insignificant details and events actually define a person and make up their character. At first I would have called the book a simple account of a few road trips but the further I got into it the more I realized that it’s actually a complex character study of the protagonist and his ‘close’ friends.
To elaborate on that, some short simple sentences are actually incredibly telling and give you tremendous insight into the persons character, how they experienced the world and how they’ll likely react in certain situations but it’s not until much later in the book that you realize the significance of these little snippets.
It’s like every sentence had been carefully crafted and placed exactly so, which is seemingly impossible given Kerouac’s way of writing, dubbed ‘spontaneous prose’.
As far as the content goes, it’s a fairly standard road trip story line that’s significantly enhanced by an almost naive selfishness, a beautiful and passionate enthusiasm for everything life has to offer and a hopeful longing for something better. Due to their inability to settle it’s predictable and spontaneous at the same time. Their incessant curiosity and eventual disappointment in what they find in any given city drives this. Ironically incredibly selective memories about their previous destinations and adventures is the root cause of this disappointment.
So what did I get out of this book? The main theme is the significance of the moment, despite how insignificant it may seem. This is pushed again and again primarily by the main characters instant attachment to people that ‘know time’ and immediate dislike for those that don’t. The very much related second is that worry is not only detrimental but also absolutely useless.
In some ways the book also looks at how both of these things are near impossible to do all the time. It’s human nature and the lead characters do spend a lot of time looking forward to the future and of course reminiscing but for the most part they’re enjoying the moment and appreciating (‘digging’) as much about it as they possibly can. It suggests that you probably need a healthy balance of the two but with a huge emphasis on the moment.
I could obviously go on and on about these themes, especially knowing time and living in the moment but I’ll never do it the justice the book can so I’ll just leave it up to you to pick up a copy for yourself.
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“How easy it is in our life, to miss what’s being offered.” — Paul Haller
