Full disclosure here: At the recommendation of my friend and reading recommender extraordinaire Elise, I bought Pachinko and Exit West to read abroad, knowing I would love them both. Rich brought On the Road by Jack Kerouac because it appeared on a list of recommended travel books. Books in English are not the easiest to come by in Budapest so I decided to give it a shot.
I’m glad I did. I was an English major back in the day, so it seems like one I should have read while I was in college. The gist for those of you who may be unfamiliar: it is a largely autobiographical novel about young American Sal Paradise and his pal Dean Moriarty who head out on road trip after road trip across America in the 1950’s.
On the Road is a tale of freedom, rejection of responsibility, friendship, youth, and rebellion. It served as a foundational work of the beat and countercultural movements. On the Road offers a snapshot of a distinctly American moment in time and shows a generation wildly pushing against expectations. Although written a few years earlier, it reminded me of The Moviegoer by Walker Percy. The protagonists in both novels struggle to find their way and their purpose in post-war America, experiencing loss and inflicting pain along the way.
I will admit though that reading about someone traveling with abandon, while you are very much not traveling with abandon, was stressful! At points, the storyline went something like this: “I only had $2 to my name to get from Denver to San Francisco but wow the girls here sure are beautiful. I bought the dark-eyed girl a coffee and beer, then drove our car into a ditch, wow- this was living!- and showered at the YMCA and called my aunt to wire me more money because we got to get to San Fran in 17 hours to see the gang again! Let’s go! Yipee!”
I wanted to tell him to save his money! Drive more carefully! Forget the dark-eyed girl! Forget Dean, who is not a real friend.
But despite my anxieties, what I appreciated the most about this book was the wonderment and enthusiasm with which Sal and Dean approached each new place. They wanted to know the people, and they wanted to live. That is an attitude I can get on board with. I hope as we continue to travel we keep our sense of wonder alive, and, while avoiding driving cars into ditches, remain able to let in a little abandonment every once in a while too.