Patchy, as with all Kerouac, but the good bits are so beautifully written they leave me breathless. ( )

Short stories about Kerouac’s life. Life on the railway. Life on a steamer. Mexico, California, and New York. And Desolation Peak, again. As he writes in the Author’s Introduction, “… pieces connected together because they have a common theme: Traveling.”

Lots of observational writing, very little happening in these stories. Sometimes it read like a travel guide, like Jack's things to see and do in the various cities. He even included prices of meals, beverages, and lodging! Interesting-ish, but not terribly entertaining.

Good last line though: “The woods are full of wardens.” ( )

Re-read of my 2nd favorite Jack, after Dharma Bums. First read under the Pacific on Hawkbill and will forever remember coming across this line -

But oh so typical of seaman, that they never do anything - just go ashore with money in their pockets and amble around dully and even with a kind of uninterested sorrow, visitors from another world, a floating prison, in civilian clothes most uninteresting looking anyway. ( )

I was reading this on a commercial flight from Boston to Pittsburgh before Ted Kennedy deregulated the airline industry. (I was the only passenger on the airplane.) The stewardesses were laughing and carrying on in the back of the plane. Finally one of them must have wondered if I was D. B. Cooper or being a stick and she came up said something and lifted my book up to see what I was reading. No reaction other than to go back to the back of the plane. ( )

This was another solid Kerouac book. The beginning was a little slow to get into, but once the ball began rolling it was a great ride that I enjoyed thoroughly. The autobiographical snippets that Kerouac weaves into his fiction truly illuminates him as a character and, foremost, as a grand player in the Beat Generation and what they stood for. The values and themes associated with his work all abound here. There is so much to like here and I especially cared for the Kerouac and his love of life, of experience and all that surrounds him. He speaks of the plight of the hobo and the wanderer in life- as expressed through his actions. Kerouac did things and then wrote about them- this much is plainly evident here.

4.25 stars- great read! ( )