An interview with Jack Kerouac by Steve Allen, done in 1959, is available on YouTube, at www.youtube.com. In the interview, Kerouac talks about writing "On the Road," and the meaning of the word "Beat." He also reads from "On the Road," which had become an immediate best seller and had Kerouac labeled the voice of his generation.
Reading beyond "On the Road"
Kerouac biographer Gerald Nicosia says there are four Kerouac novels you must read, besides "On the Road," for a full appreciation of the writer's genius.
"The Dharma Bums," the book he wrote as a sequel to "On the Road," which many people think is actually more interesting and less dated than its predecessor. It made a national hero of poet and ecologist Gary Snyder, portrayed as Japhy Ryder in the novel, and introduced Buddhism to tens of thousands of Westerners who knew nothing about it before.
"Visions of Cody," the Neal Cassady and Jack "on the road" story told in a nonlinear fashion, with the time line completely exploded and incredibly long, sometimes 10,000-word riffs on seemingly insignificant events, like sitting in a cafeteria over a cup of coffee or kneeling to say a prayer in a dark church -- as if Kerouac were writing high as a kite on tetrahydrocannabinol, which much of the time he was.
"Doctor Sax," a perfect mixture of fantasy and reality, written in 1952, long before postmodernism became the vogue and writers like Tom Robbins discovered the power unleashed by letting real and fantasy characters interact on the printed page. The novel tells the story of 12-year-old Jackie Duluoz's adventures helping a slightly sinister superhero fight evildoers, based on the '30s radio-show character "The Shadow."
"Desolation Angels," a hip travelogue of America written long before latter-day imitations -- which often sold far more copies -- like "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas." No novel you might read will contain a broader swath of the American fabric, from fire-lookout stations in the Cascade Range to Seattle burlesque houses to big-city skid rows to the parlors of the New York literati to sweltering Florida tract homes.
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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