Review: Jack Kerouac's American Journey
Paul Maher Jr.'s Study of The Real Life Odyssey of On The Road
Oct 19, 2008
Paul Maher Jr.'s 2007 book Jack Kerouac's American Journey (The Real-Life Odyssey of On The Road) is as much a biography about the famous novel as it is about the Beat Generation author himself. Published in 1957, On The Road has remained a consistent resident on "greatest american novels" lists since. Along with Alan Ginsberg's poem Howl, the tale of youthful pilgrimage is considered the defining work of the 1950's Beat Movement.
Biography Coincides With 50th Anniversary Of "On The Road"
The publication of Jack Kerouac's American Journey coincided with the 50th anniversary of On The Road's release, an occasion that also included, among others, publication of the legendary "original scroll". The well-known story of Kerouac's manic three-week stream-of-consciousness composition on a single 120 foot roll of taped-together art sheets is one of the things this book adresses and seeks to understand.
Both Jack Kerouac and On The Road are among the most written-about literary entities in 20th century American culture. The author's task --to bring fresh details and perspective to what led up to and went into the composition of the famous novel-- was no small one.
Paul Maher Jr. is a Kerouac scholar with two other books about the Beat king to his credit. He brings his foreknowledge, as well as unprecedented access to both Kerouac and Ginsberg's journals, and the correspondence between Kerouac and Neal Cassady to the writing of his book, and it shows.
Biography Delves Into Characterizations, Literary Influences
Ginsberg and Cassady figure prominently in On The Road as the fictional cohorts Carlo Marx and Dean Moriarity (respectively) to Kerouac's alter-ego Sal Paradise. One of the strengths of Jack Kerouac's American Dream is how much new information Maher Jr. reveals about these real-life characters (and several others to a lesser degree) particularly in relation to their interaction with Kerouac and hence the impact they had on the novel.
Beyond the characterizations, Maher Jr. takes a close look at nearly everything that did (and could have) influenced Jack Kerouac's writing of On The Road. The novel was actually written in 1951, nearly six years before its publication, so the book begins several years before that date, on the eve of Kerouac's first momentous road trip into the American west. The real events of this and other trips are revealed through Kerouac's journals, and it's interesting to see how they were transformed in to fiction.
Among the other intriguing revelations in Jack Kerouac's American Dream are Kerouac's thoughts on his literary influences (including Balzac, Wolfe, Dostoyevsky and Whitman) and his own constantly forming and evolving theories on writing and life.
"It's the mere presence of life, not its drama, that drives me wondering and ecstatic to write about it---" Kerouac claims in his journal, " but how shall I write about it as no other man has written about it, unless I accept the initiative of complete and slightly 'insane', originality, and do so in good earnest faith?"
For more than half a century, readers have known that this is exactly what Jack Kerouac ultimately did. Paul Maher Jr.'s Jack Kerouac's American Dream shows us how and why.
Maher Jr., Paul. Jack Kerouac's American Dream, 2007, Thunder's Mouth Press / 295 pgs.
(ISBN#: 13: 978-1-56025-991-6)
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