On the Road

The comments of the young clerk at Half Price Books are typical of what I've heard: “On the Road is my favorite book. It changed my life.” I wouldn't say On the Road is my favorite book and I wouldn't say it changed my life, but it was a powerful read. Sal Paradise (a thinly disguised Kerouac) and Dean Moriarty travel back and forth across America and even into Mexico, visiting like-minded friends, picking up and dropping women, drinking, looking for...what? They rarely seemed satisfied for more than a few hours and they didn't really seem to know what it was they were seeking. They had strong feelings about what they were fleeing, though, mostly conformity and mindless work and people who didn't think much about their lives. It was hard for me to understand their restlessness and their aversion to most of America, and I felt a terrible anger toward the men because of the careless way they treated their wives and other women and the children they begat.