On the Road—Paradise Refound
Thursday, August 16th, 2007
On the Road isn’t exactly a book that you a) need an excuse to re-read or b) write about. Still, much has been said and done on a book that generation after generation have the supreme pleasure to discover for the first time. Back in the day, I taught the book to a group of high school students in a course called, “I got my tie-dye at Macy’s: The 60s meets the 80s,” (which I thought was quite witty at the time).
A piece in the (now smaller but still grand) New York Times meets and greets Kerouac and co. on the fiftieth anniversary of the book’s publication. As is the (em>Times’ way, the package around the piece online is rich: a PDF of the original Times review in 1957; an audio reading of the first chapter; tons of reader comments, like this one by “Kendal”:
After WWII it was necessary for transcendentalism to be condensed like a can of soup for the quick consumption of late 20th century moderns. Not that there’s anything wrong with it. The lesson is that these themes continue to influence us, parsed, however, in terms that reflect the gritty reality of the street, or road, if you wish.
Here, here!
Now, not to sprinkle too much hate on a book I love, but I wonder: You have to figure that, while the book is certainly considered a memoir, Kerouac had to have exaggerated part of his journey. And who’s kidding who? Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (the book you of course read shortly after On the Road) is not pure nonfiction. Does it matter if the essence of the storytelling experience for writer and then reader rings true? If so, should future editions states: this ain’t all true? How is this different than James Frey and others who’ve been accused and caught of fabrication or gross exaggeration?
On the Road image from Flickr’s Corvar.
He never claimed that Vegas was non-fiction. Some elements of it were based on events that took place but it is essentially a novel. Frey claimed to have written a memoir, ultimately. Vegas is more like this: http://www.amazon.com/Million-Little-Pieces-Feces/dp/1411677315/ref=sr_1_1/105-1825844-1643651?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1187366396&sr=1-1
which isn’t like Frey at all.
I re-read On the Road every few years. It always makes me feel hopeful.
I remember some book I was reading about recently had a disclaimer that went something like “While this book is an autobiography, some events have been exaggerated for entertainment’s value.” I had that authors have to do that now, I think exaggerations are expected when an author is writing about their life, especially when it’s told humorously.
There’s a wonderful audio recording of OTR narrated by David Carradine (do I have the right Carradine? Carradine the Elder, at any rate). His laconic, low-key delivery, not overly emoted, feels just right.
I actually have that recording, and it is one of the Carradine’s. The one from Kung Fu, I believe.