Thoughts about On the Road - 1
I'll probably write a lot on this blog about On the Road. For some reason this novel has resonated with me from the time I first read it in October of 2010.
I picked up On the Road at one of the book stores at DFW Airport when I was leaving for a conference in Monterey, California. I can't remember what moved me to buy it. Certainly by then I was deep into my journaling and blogging hobby and for some reason I just grabbed it.
I had no idea how much of the novel involves northern California, though I'd been to this particular conference before. In both cases I got there a bit early, rented a car at the Monterey airport, and drove up north of San Francisco to Marin County to spend time with a friend. In fact, it was at this conference in 2006 that I actually become a blogger. I went to a session about blogging (this was a librarian conference), and I started my main and longtime blog from the computer in the "business center" of the hotel. Oh - the days of not having a laptop! But I digress...
I immediately enjoyed this novel. There's a sadness to this novel that probably spoke to me, as my father had died just the year before. There's a lot of joy in the novel too, but to me there's this sense of melancholy that just permeates it. As I sit here writing this it occurs to me how much my father's nine months of illness and withering away and death affected me and continues to affect me now, 17 years later. On the Road contains a lot of loss, and while the characters all seem to chase or at least admire lives of reckless exuberant living there is a lot of regret as well. And through the protagonist, Sal, we see all this. The crazy joy, the pitiful plights, regrets, sadness, beauty, and chaos.
I'm listening the the audiobook right now during my daily commutes. I know I'll have more to write. More later.