A Masterpiece Overlooked "On the Road" gets all the attention. I stumbled through that novel, thought it was interesting. Then I saw this book, "Big Sur", in a bookstore and felt that because I was familiar with the area that this would be a nice read. When I finished this book I was sad with the fact that I would never come across a tale like it again. Ever. Consider the fact that I was only 17 at the time. This is that brilliant. It truly is a staggering tale of the way Kerouac's life changed after the fame of "On the Road". The Beat-down generation of youngsters he helped create become another obligation/weight for him, his drug-use and alcohol abuse wash over him. The Beat way of life becomes something else to escape from. This was his last novel, and it fits. It's not peaceful, instead it explodes across the pages and dissipates before you can come to a reconciliation with it or it's creator. This book broke my heart but truly awakened me to how powerful writing could be and what an incredible writer Kerouac was. The fact that he laid himself and his demons so bare in these pages is amazingly vulnerable of him (or any writer). Yet this book, through it's misty sorrow and burning madness, always remains inherently beautiful. It's not for everyone, Kerouac never was, but for those who get it there's just no coming back from "Big Sur".
Destruction of a Visionary Big Sur is the most mournful and tragic Jack Kerouac novel that I have yet read, and surprisingly, it is also his most focused. Though it lacks the sheer exhilaration of On the Road or The Dharma Bums, it makes up for it with poignant and beautiful insight into the author's inescapable depression and rejection of everything he once praised. Big Sur is definitely not the place to start reading Kerouac, but if you are already familiar with his earlier works, it is an absolutely necessary chapter in the saga of his life.
Reading Kerouac's bibliography and understanding where each novel fits into the story of his life can be a little tricky, because there are three dates that you need to keep in mind for each work. First is the period that the events in the novel actually took place, second the time that Kerouac wrote these events down, and third the date that his novel was published. Big Sur was published very shortly after it was written, mostly due to the author's recently achieved literary fame. On the Road, on the other hand, was written nearly a decade before it was published, and revised continually in the interim. Desolation Angels contains events before those in Big Sur, but was published (and partially written) several years afterwards. Before reading Big Sur, it is helpful to have first read On the Road, The Dharma Bums, and Desolation Angels (presumably in that order) to have a good understanding of the arc of Kerouac's life. It is probably also rewarding to read smaller works like The Subterraneans and Tristessa somewhere in the middle there, as their events also bear influence on the storytelling cycle as a whole, but I have not yet had the opportunity to do so.
Anyway, getting back to Big Sur itself: it might be a bit off-putting to hear so many people describe it as "heartbreaking" and "tragic." But this should not deter you from reading. The novel isn't one huge downer, but a slow unfolding (almost elegant) descent into madness, written by a man who by any measure should be at the peak of his success. Kerouac is never bitter about the way his life has turned out, but retains a sort of Buddhist calm in his recollection of the whirlwind events. I don't want to give anyway anything that happens in the plot, suffice to say that Kerouac begins the story with a peaceful retreat to a cabin in the Big Sur canyon, and tries every which was he can to escape the crushing weight of his depression and disillusionment.
The only weak part of the novel for me was the appended poem "Sea." It starts out interesting enough, capturing the physical sensations of sitting and watching the surf and the mythic wonderment with the idea of the sea itself. But it meanders a little too long for me---maybe I am just not a fan of Kerouac's poetry. All together, a solid 4.5 star book, and an essential read for Kerouac enthusiasts.
Like Watching a Train Wreck in Slow Motion Jack Kerouac's BIG SUR(1961) is like watching a train wreck in slow motion... horrible, but you just can't help yourself from watching... in Jack's case, he writes about the lead-up to, and actual experience of, a nervous breakdown - obviously caused by excessive booze binges.
In 1960, Jack Kerouac was a man who basically had it all - his hit book ON THE ROAD(1957) inspired and defined the "Beat Generation"... but, at 40 years old, Jack has trouble keeping up the "bohemian" lifestyle. He arranges to cross the USA by train from back East, and seek refuge from his drinking bouts in a freind's cabin in Big Sur. After an initial booze binge on arrival to San Francisco, Jack actually does make it out to the cabin alone, and actually finds the peace and sober living he had initially wanted to find... but Jack begins to get bored, and finds his way back to SF, were he starts back on his old wild ways - but, it eventually catches up to him back at the Big Sur cabin, where he has brought the party... Jack writes about his paranoid delusions, DTs, etc. as he begins to come down off the booze after a two-week bender. This book was a preview of the end of Jack's life - he died 7 years later, of internal bleeding brought on by years of chronic alcohol abuse.
I've also lead a somewhat bohemian lifestyle (although apparently much less so, as compared to Jack Kerouac), and have been gradually cutting back on the partying for a few years now, and now that I'm 48 - one-year-older than Kerouac when he died - I finally felt OK about reading BIG SUR, which I've been wanting to read for years, but which kind of scared me to pick up, because ON THE ROAD kind of lead me down some wrong paths over the years... Now, for those of you who have wondered (like I did) whether this book would help or hurt one who is trying to get away from "the bohemian experience" - I say that it definately helped in my case (a weekend bohemian).
This is a good book, and a quick read. It is written in Jack's "classic" stream of conscienceness style. There really isn't a lot about Big Sur, other than the little valley Jack stays in... if you want to know more about Big Sur, it really can only be understood if you see it for yourself... but, be prepared to spend lots of money... I, luckily, was able to experience the area for one night on a side trip that my company had paid me to take to the area to deliver equipment to Monterey -- I actually got them to foot the bill for the small cabin I was able to find -- the last one in town! I managed to stay mostly out of trouble on my short visit to this "magic" corner of the Earth.
My 2nd favorite Kerouac novel This is a story of a trip to the "woods" that was taken in hopes of straightening out a hoplessly fouled up life. While it has the complete opposite feel than the optimism of the Dharma Bums, it is like a continuation of the same story, after life has had it's way with the story teller. Although some people feel that Kerouac lost his abilities toward the latter part of his career. I believe this book shows that he did not. While I preferred the Dharma Bums, This would rank as my second favorite Kerouac "novel".
Kerouac's most honest novel. Kerouac pulled no internal punches with this one. He's there, at his worst in many ways, but the sordid tale is beautifully told. How he makes something so depressing and painful into a work of pure beauty is almost magical. No one had ever done fiction quite like Jack Kerouac, and no one has since been able to duplicate that style, or even ape it effectively.
BIG SUR is one of the top four of the Beat works. For me, it remains one of the most powerful--easily the saddest. And I think we need something of the expression of this kind of sadness.
Anything Goes Trivia
Last Kiss
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Trevor
