This is a celebration of the life of Neal Cassady, the author's friend and inspiration. The son of a Denver drop-out, brought up homeless and motherless during the Depression, Cassady - novelized as Cody - lived his life raw, hustling in pool halls, stealing cars and living wild.

2007-04-25 A mixed bag

Kerouac's dedication to his practice of "spontaneous prose" inevitably led to mixed results and this book is no exception; indeed, the huge gulf between the best and the worst of Kerouac's writing is nowhere more apparent than here. You can't really blame him for that, as he himself did not intend the book for publication. He may well have chopped (even if he would not have revised) the text before it had gone out. I only wish that someone now would publish a 100 page version, including only the strongest sections that are actually relevant to its stated topic (ie Kerouac's vision of Neal Cassady). As it is, alas, the reader must wade through pages and pages of rambling digressions on many other things, much of it obscure, tedious, jaw droppingly mysogynistic or just plain silly, in order to find the passages of amazing lyrical intensity for which the book is (justly) famous.

I would read On The Road first, as it's a much better and more accessible book. Then, if you're still curious to know more about Jack and Neal, then take the plunge and skim this book. It feels as exciting and frustrating as prospecting for gold. At its best, the "visionary" prose on display here is like nothing ever written before or since.