"We were all delighted, we all realized we were leaving confusion and nonsense behind and performing our one noble function of the time, move."
(Jack Kerouac, 1951, through his character Sal, Chapter 6, On the Road)
And move we soulmates of Dean and Sal did. Travel, music, relationships, touching souls: the priorities in our lives. For me, there's no better book to have with you on a train ride from Rome to Vienna that Jack Kerouac's On the Road.
As Wikipedia notes, Kerouac wrote his masterpiece in a coffee-only burst of creativity lasting 3 weeks, patching together notes made of during middle and late 1940s cross-country roadtrips. The original scroll manuscript of 1951 was heavily edited for ultimate publication six years later.
September 5, 2007 marked the 50th anniversary the release of this iconic accelerating train ride of a novel. The Beat Generation leaves us nothing better than this, save perhaps the music,"tea", wine, and this quixotic existential searches we call our lives.
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