Jack Kerouac
Sulla Strada

Who has never uttered the words "on the road"? Life on the road is one of the quintessential hippy myths, perhaps the one that has transcended the boundaries of time the most, imprinting itself on the world's popular culture. But this lifestyle wasn't an original hippy concept: it emerged with the Beat Generation right after World War II, and Jack Kerouac's book "On The Road" is perhaps its clearest example. Alongside the poems of Allen Ginsberg and the writings of Neal Cassady, Jack Kerouac's works are undoubtedly among the most significant of this cultural movement.

"On the Road" is halfway between history and autobiography: the protagonist, Sal Paradise, is clearly the author's alter-ego, just as the wild, idealistic, unpredictable adventure companion Dean Moriarty is none other than Neal Cassady himself. Sal harbors a latent admiration for his friend: even without stating it explicitly, it is evident from how he admires his way of being in the world, his ideas, his values as a fallen bohemian, his madnesses that are, after all, not that illogical. Among the minor characters, there is Carlo Marx (a name-tribute to Groucho Marx) representing Allen Ginsberg, a poet who writes crazy lyrics and who understands Dean very well, almost seeming to have an absolute and mystical level of comprehension with him.

The novel is actually nothing but a narrative account: much more compelling than "De Bello Gallico," we agree, but to be brutally succinct, it is a simple account of the travels from one end of North America to the other by Sal and his friends. Of course, on a literary level, it is not a simple series of events: there is nothing rigorous and austere in the story, indeed the style is vaguely chaotic just like the lives of the work's characters. A style sometimes frenetic, sometimes psychedelic and relaxed, sometimes sad, sometimes depressed, but always alive. The main characters are well described psychologically, and above all stand out the figures of the narrator Sal and the much-admired Dean, beacon and symbol of the Beat Generation.

This is, however, a novel only apparently simple: above all, it is a depiction of the wild nights of the characters, of the sex and women, of the "wild bebop," of the alcohol, of the money raised who knows how, but it is at the same time the story of the friendship between two people who share many ideals and decide to share their lives. This is a life novel, yes, because there is neither time nor room for death in the car. It’s about not overthinking, it’s about the heart that always wins over the mind. There is no room for logic, nothing is logical, life is illogical. So it’s worth listening to Charlie Parker and then setting off in a beat-up car for some American highway, it doesn't matter which, as long as you get there, it doesn't matter where: San Francisco, L.A., Denver, or Mexico. Since human existence is so illogical, it's a draft without a chance of revision and mostly without a destination, we must set off. Set off to arrive, because at least the highway will take us somewhere, doesn't matter where, but let it take us. Set off, to arrive... to arrive!