The First 100 Books Read (by Date)

1001		Title	Author	Year		Rating		Read
# 100		Lolita	Nabokov	1955		10		Apr-12
# 99		The Book Thief	Zucak	2005		10		Mar-12
# 98		On the Road	Kerouac	1957		10		Mar-12
# 97		Ficciones	Borges	1962		8.5		Feb-12
# 96		The Castle	Kafka	1926		9		Jan-12
# 95		Giovanni's room	Baldwin	1956		8		Jan-12
# 94		Heloise	Hebert	1980		6		Jan-12
# 93		The Help	Stockett	2009		6.5		Jan-12
# 92		Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close	Foer	2005		8		Dec-11
# 91		Cakes & Ale	Maugham	1930		6		Dec-11
# 90		Mayor of Casterbridege	Hardy	1880		10		Dec-11
# 89		Clockwork Orange	Burgess	1962		9		Dec-11
# 88		Wide Sargasso Sea	Rhys	1966		7		Dec-11
# 87		Jane Eyre	Bronte	1847		9		Dec-11
# 86		By Grand Central Station	Smart	1945		7		Nov-11
# 85		Crying of Lot 49	Pynchon	1966		7.5		Nov-11
# 84		Moon & Sixpense	Maugham	1919		8		Nov-11
# 83		Rubaiyat	Khayyam	1100		6		Nov-11
# 82		Farewell to Arms	Hemingway	1929		10		Nov-11
# 81		As I Lay Dying	Faulkner	1930		7		Nov-11
# 80		Alice in Wonderland	Carroll	1875		3		Nov-11
# 79		So Many Books, So Little Time	Nelson	2003		6		Oct-11
# 78		Brideshead Revisted	Waugh	1945		6.5		Oct-11
# 77		The Sun Also Rises	Hemingway	1926		7		Oct-11
# 76		Shadow of the Wind	Zafon	2004		8		Oct-11
# 75		If on a Winter's Night a Traveller	Calvino	1979		10		Oct-11
# 74		Kamouraska	Hebert	1973		9		Oct-11
# 73		Louis Riel	Brown	2003		6.5		Oct-11
# 72		Maus I & II	Spiegelman	1986		9		Oct-11
# 71		The Forever War	Haldeman	1974		8.5		Sep-11
# 70		The Forged Coupon	Tolstoy	1910		8.5		Sep-11
# 69		Books: a memoir	McMurtry	2008		6.5		Sep-11
# 68		Tale of Two Cities	Dickens	1859		10		Sep-11
# 67		Disgrace	Coetzee	1998		9		Aug-11
# 66		Waiting for the Barbarians	Coetzee	1980		8.5		Aug-11
# 65		Neuromancer	Gibson	1984		6		Aug-11
# 64		One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich	Solzhenitsyn	1963		8		Aug-11
# 63		Shepherds of the Night	Amado	1966		10		Aug-11
# 62		Merchant of Venice	Shakespeare	1590		8.5		Jul-11
# 61		Man Who Was Thursday	Chesterton	1908		5.5		Jul-11
# 60		Julius Caesar	Shakespeare	1599		9		Jul-11
# 59		Bridge of San Luis Rey	Wilder	1927		5.5		Jul-11
# 58		Romeo and Juliet	Shakespeare	1600		7		Jul-11
# 57		Sentimentalists	Skibsrud	2009		8		Jul-11
# 56		Beatrice and Virgil	Martel	2010		7		Jul-11
# 55		Divine Comedy - Paradiso	Dante	1308		7.5		Jul-11
# 54		Sea of Poppies	Ghosh	2008		7		Jul-11
# 53		El Cid	Hamilton(trans)	1207		6.5		Jul-11
# 52		The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest	Larsson	2010		6		Jun-11
# 51		Of Men and Mice	Steinbeck	1937		8.5		Jun-11
# 50		The Girl who Played with Fire	Larsson	2009		9		May-11
# 49		Kreutzer Sonata	Tolstoy	1889		7.5		May-11
# 48		Cronicles of a Death Foretold	Marquez	1981		9.5		May-11
# 47		Poor Folk	Dostoevsky	1846		8.5		Apr-11
# 46		Of Human Bondage	Maugham	1915		9.5		Apr-11
# 45		Book of Negroes	Hill	2007		8.5		Apr-11
# 44		Secret Daughter	Gowda	2010		6		Mar-11
# 43		Pinocchio	Collodi	1883		6		Mar-11
# 42		Historian	Kostova	2005		7		Feb-11
# 41		Dracula	Stoker	1897		8		Feb-11
# 40		Metamorphosis	Kafka	1915		9.5		Jan-11
# 39		Divine Comedy - Purgatorio	Dante	1308		4.5		Jan-11
# 38		The Lover	Duras	1984		9		Dec-10
# 37		Pamela	Richardson	1740		7.5		Dec-10
# 36		Man in a Uniform	Taylor	2010		3		Dec-10
# 35		The Internet Bride	Ward	2000		6		Nov-10
# 34		Picture of Dorian Gray	Wilde	1891		9.5		Nov-10
# 33		Adolphe	Constant	1816		7		Nov-10
# 32		The Immoralist	Gide	1902		8.5		Oct-10
# 31		One Hundred Years of Solitude	Marquez	1967		10		Oct-10
# 30		Ripening Seed	Colette	1923		9.5		Sep-10
# 29		Divine Comedy - Inferno	Dante	1308		9.5		Sep-10
# 28		The Gargoyle	Davidson	2008		9		Aug-10
# 27		Kim	Kipling	1901		9.5		Aug-10
# 26		The Tempest	Shakespeare	1610		6.5		Aug-10
# 25		Bhagavad Gita	Anon	-200		7.5		Aug-10
# 24		Turn of the Screw	James	1898		2.5		Aug-10
# 23		Dubliners	Joyce	1914		9		Aug-10
# 22		Ajax	Sophocles	-430		6		Jul-10
# 21		Antigone	Sophocles	-442		7		Jul-10
# 20		Oedipus the King	Sophocles	-429		10		Jul-10
# 19		Oedipus at Colonus	Sophocles	-406		8		Jul-10
# 18		Eumenides	Aeschylus	-458		6		Jul-10
# 17		Epic of Gilgamesh	Anon	-2000		10		Jul-10
# 16		Choephoroe	Aeschylus	-458		7		Jul-10
# 15		Beowulf	Anon	1010		8		Jul-10
# 14		Agamemnon	Aeschylus	-458		8.5		Jul-10
# 13		The Girl with Dragon Tattoo	Larsson	2008		7		Jun-10
# 12		Bonjour Tristesse	Sagan	1954		7.5		Jun-10
# 11		Ex-Libris	Fadiman	2000		6		Jun-10
# 10		L’amante Anglaise	Duras	1967		5.5		Jun-10
# 9		Steppenwolf	Hesse	1927		9		Jun-10
# 8		Portrait of Artist as a Young Man	Joyce	1916		8.5		Jun-10
# 7		Ulysses	Joyce	1922		10		May-10
# 6		Story of Edgar Sawtelle	Wroblewski	2008		7.5		Apr-10
# 5		The Odyssey	Homer	-800		10		Mar-10
# 4		Stonehedge	Cromwell	2000		6.5		Jan-10
# 3		The Illiad	Homer	-800		8.5		Dec-09
# 2		Wuthering Heights	Bronte	1847		9.5		Oct-09
# 1		Don Quixote	Cervantes	1615		8.5		Sep-09

Non Lit1001 FULL REVIEW - Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James – A Critique

***WARNING: SPOILER ALERT and GRAPHIC CONTENT***

I’m MAD as HELL and I have only myself to blame!  I was duped into reading this colossal rubbish masquerading as “erotic, amusing and deeply moving” (back cover liner notes).   Little did I know what to expect!

10 Million Fans can’t be wrong, right? WRONG!   Curiosity got the better of me, and against my better judgment I plunged into a genre (Erotic Romance) that I would NEVER touch.  Remember my blog is titled Lit1001 not Crap101.  But I perceived a national obsession and publishing phenomenon unlike any other (New York Times #1, 2, 3, 4 Bestsellers and this title #1 for 13 straight weeks, as of date of posting this critique!).  But by the end of this first book of a trilogy, I am smarting with pain, much like the main character Ana.

I am at a total LOSS as to the source of its popularity.  Have people lost their minds? Or more specially, the 30/40-something married suburban mothers.  What could possibly be the attraction for this totally unrealistic, poorly written, clichéd soap opera of a book?  And what’s with the title?  No wait, we will have fun with it later!

Ok, let’s start with the beginning…..

How I First Heard of the BOOK

A good friend and I met at Chapters and I noticed the Vintage paperback trilogy (‘all the rage’) and I thought very little of it.  The following evening at dinner with friends from Connecticut, the BOOK once again came up in a discussion as to whether it would make for an appropriate birthday gift.  Why not, I wondered?

I meet my Chapters buddy a few days later, and he is now buying it too, and a woman ahead of us in the checkout line also is purchasing it.  What is going on here?  After learning some intriguing facts about the origins of the BOOK from my Chapters buddy, I decide to take the plunge and see what everyone is raving about.  I should have been suspicious when a 50-something woman remarks to her husband when seeing the display for BOOK that it was a big disappointment and she had guessed the end well in advance.  I should have listened to her!

Shocking Publishing Phenomenon

Recently, the 10 million copy threshold was reached for the trilogy, in e-book, Vintage paperback and audio-book format.  10 million!!!  A colleague indicated that they were selling like hot-cakes (or is that hot wax?).  I am puzzled, but have learned that e-readers have had liberating effect on women who ordinarily might have been embarrassed to read an Erotic or Romantic novel on the subway.  Blame it on Kindle!!!   In fact, Erotica is disproportionately purchased in e-format.  OK, but this BOOK pushes the boundaries big time, and it is worrisome. 

Definition of UNDISCERNING – indiscriminate reading habits!!!

‘BDSM’ Goes Mainstream

Before I read this BOOK, I had no idea what ‘BDSM’ stood for.  I figured the SM as Sadism-Masochism, and if I understand correctly B is Bondage, D is Dominant/Submissive and SM we already covered.  This acronym packs a wallop (pardon the pun!).  So when did it become OK to go into excruciating details about this sub-culture.  Did I really need to know about hard and soft limits (plugs, clamps, and wax –sounds like items at a hardware store!).  The passages are so clinical and NOT sexy that it felt as though one were reading a how-to BDSM manual. 

By why are the women readers so drawn into this?  Is it their perceived submissive roles in their marriages?  Do they REALLY want to trade places with Ana and be a sex slave? I don’t think so.  Or is it the dawning realization that Ana (and by inference, themselves) actually have sexual power and control over men, especially in those first charged encounters?  I don’t have an answer.  Perhaps someone would be so kind as to enlighten me.

Cliché –Cliché:  Where have we seen these Characters before?

The names and occupations may have changed, but it is the same tired stereotypes.

Corner A – Anastasia Steele:  21 year old insecure, naive, virgin and Literature student

Corner B – Christian Grey:  27 year old, abused, manipulative billionaire CEO control freak into kinky sex

Really, I couldn’t make it up if I tried!

Don’t be fooled, it is a modern day fairy tale retelling of the Beauty and the Beast (Grey’s kinky side not his looks), Little Red Riding Hood and Big Bad Wolf (Freud would have a field day!)  Or is it more like Cinderella and her Prince?  How about Fabio and the helpless heroine?  Pick your choice.

John’s Top 10 List – What the BOOK should be Titled

 Let’s have some fun and change the title to reflect the true nature of the BOOK.  Pick any letter at random, say ‘D.’   Change the letter and see you many words you can find to more aptly describe it.

10.  Fifty Shades of ……. Disgusting

9.    Fifty Shades of ……. Debasement

8.    Fifty Shades of ……. Depressing

7.    Fifty Shades of ……. Depraved

6.    Fifty Shades of ……. Disturbing

5.    Fifty Shades of ……. Dangerous

4.    Fifty Shades of ……. Dull

3.    Fifty Shades of ……. Disappointing

2.    Fifty Shades of ……. Delusion

1.    Fifty Shades of ……. Dribble***

***(thanks to AR for this choice word description)

Romantic and Sexy?  No Blood Please!

How is it romantic when your ‘lover’ derives satisfaction by physically punishing you at every minor transgression?   Also he declares upfront, “I don’t do the girlfriend thing” (p.47).  Ana sees this as a challenge, thinking see can change him. RIGHT!  And Christian is Mr. Sensitivity, “You’re a virgin? Why the f**k didn’t you tell me?” (p. 108).

How is it sexy when the ‘love ‘scenes are described in excruciating and disgusting clinical detail?   Oh yeah, I forgot.  Christian makes no allusions: “I don’t make love.  I f**k … hard” (p.96).  If it sounds like PORN, maybe it is PORN (or new category for dedicated readers of this trilogy, i.e. ‘Mommy PORN’).  And no blood please for the squeamish at heart, like yours truly.  Two truly disgusting scenes I wish I had NEVER read concern actions by Christian after Ana loses her virginity (p. 120) and while she is on her period (p.430, 432).  UGHHH!   Skip these if you can.  You have been warned!

Oh by the way, a little bit of Reality please!  Why is it that in these ‘Erotic Romance ‘novels, the hero is extremely well-endowed or ‘hung,’ has an insatiable appetite (“sex on legs” is what Ana calls him) and can make his partner climax at will?  Or how is it that the inexperienced virgin heroine feels no pain when ‘making love’ the first time, but rather instantly reaches orgasm (then and every time afterwards), and gets an A in oral sex the first time she attempts it due to the fact that she has no gag reflex!  Inquiring minds want to know!!!

Annoying Anastasia

Is it me, or does Ana drive you crazy.  She sounds so juvenile with her internal expressions , “Holy F**k,  Holy Cow, Crap, Holy Hell, Wow, Whoa”  and that is just in the opening few chapters.  I can’t stand all the cheesy passages describing her inner goddess and subconscious (reminds me of cartoons with the angel and devil on the character’s shoulders). 

I get annoyed with her esteem issues and perhaps this tipped off Christian that she would be a perfect submissive.  Opening line of BOOK, “I scowl with frustration at myself in the mirror.”  Closing line, “I curl up, desperately clutching that flat foil balloon and Taylor’s handkerchief, and surrender myself to my grief.”

What did she expect?  To change a seriously messed up control freak with commitment issues… “50 shades of f**ked-up” (her words, not mine)?  Transform the dark knight into the white knight? Rehabilitate the son of a crack whore who was molested by Mrs. Robinson at 15? To get MORE than a spanking from the relationship?  Ana to the rescue!  Seriously, this mindset is very irresponsible and can contribute to much real pain in people’s lives.  Surprise Surprise.   Icarus gets burned at the end of the BOOK.  Soared to close to the Sun.  Hmmmmm.

Comparisons to TESS

What infuriates me is how this BOOK pretentiously positions itself as ‘high-brow’ with its misguided references to ‘Tess of the d’Urbervilles ‘by Thomas Hardy.  Ana as the Literature student remarks ‘that woman was in the wrong place at the wrong time in the wrong century’ (p.21).  Ana, when confronted with a moral choice similar to the one in the Hardy novel, deliberately decides debasement (p.95).  Ana does not heed Tess’ cry/warning from the novel  “Why didn’t you tell me there was danger? Why didn’t you warn me?”(p.54).  Does that mean that morality has shifted in the past 120 years, that Ana’s character by inference is that woman in the right place at the right time in the right century?  I pray not!!!

Furthermore, when did this type of pornography became acceptable?  Is this a sign of the times?  Has the pendulum swung so far the other way? By comparison, the banned books of the past based on obscenity/sexual content charges (Fanny Hill, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Ulysses, Tropic of Cancer, Lolita etc.) appear rather tame by today’s standards. 

To Read to Not to Read (Part 2 & 3)

This is a very easy answer for me.  ABSOLUTELY NOT!  The only reason I finished the first book is because I promised several intrigued friends (who had better sense to not read it) that I would be the guinea pig and write a review about a type of book I would never dare begin to read.  Well at the midpoint of BOOK, I had lost complete interest and forced myself to read on.  And it got WORSE as I approached the end. 

I feel cheated when there is NO closure in a book, as in this case.  I know nothing of the next two books in the series, but I can guess the series of events…… girl meets and loses messed-up boy (Book 1), girl goes back to same boy trying to work things out (Book 2), magically a truce is found and girl and boy live happily ever after … with their whips and handcuffs (Book 3).  OOOHHH, How Sweet!!!! 

I couldn’t care less what happens next!!!  Although I am in the minority, it seems.  Millions have already pre-purchased all three books at once.  A marathon reading session of S+M Romance!  NOT ME, thanks!!!

Final Thoughts

I can only say that I rarely have felt that reading any book has been a complete waste of time.  In this case, it is a first for me.  I not only lost (never to recover) precious time but also money ($18) when I could have instead purchased a completed used paperback collection of Hardy’s major novels and read Tess of the D’Urbervilles.  Because Great Literature elevates and illuminates the human condition, while writing of this worst kind (50 Shades of Trash) merely diminishes and demeans!

OVERALL RATING:           0 on a scale of 1- 10  (worst of the worst!)

Head to Head: Charlotte Bronte vs. Jane Austen

Who do you prefer?  Charlotte Bronte or Jane Austen?  Jane Eyre or Pride and Prejudice?

Below is a comparison of the two prominent authors life and major novels.  You Decide!                        

                                    Charlotte Bronte                       Jane Austen

                                                  

                                                  

Life                              1816 – 1855 (38)                     1775 - 1817 (41)

Place of Birth              Thornton, Yorkshire, UK          Steventon, Hampshire, UK

Family                           Curator                                    Rector, Landed gentry

Marital Status               Married 1854                           Died Unmarried

Cause of Death            Tuberculosis?                           Hodgkin’s lymphoma?

Famous Novel              Jane Eyre                                 Pride & Prejudice

Opening Line      "There was no possibility     "It is a truth universally acknowledged,
                             of taking a walk that day"       that a single man in possession of a
                                                                          good fortune, must be in want of a wife"

Publication Date           1847                                        1813

Novel genre                  Bildungsroman                         Comedy of manners, satire

Novel style                   First person narrative                Free Indirect Speech

Reception                    Success, favorable reviews      Few reviews, favorable

Pen Name                  Currer Bell                                 “By a Lady”

Siblings                      Maria – died 11                         Cassandra Elizabeth – died 72

Elizabeth – died 10                   6 Brothers

Branwell – died 31

Emily – died 30           

                                    Anne – died 29

Charlotte Bronte did not like Jane Austen; “The Passions are perfectly unknown to her … even to the Feelings she vouchsafes no more than an occasional graceful but distant recognition.” 

Charlotte Bronte wrote that Pride and Prejudice was a disappointment, "a carefully fenced, highly cultivated garden, with neat borders and delicate flowers; but no glance of a bright, vivid physiognomy, no open country, no fresh air, no blue hill, no bonny beck. I should hardly like to live with her ladies and gentlemen, in their elegant but confined houses."                                  

ANSWERS - Literary Opening Lines QUIZ

Below are the answers to the Opening Lines QUIZ. How did you do?  QUIZ Ratings as follows:

5-7 Correct = GOOD  (Familar with several classics)
8-10 Correct = VERY GOOD (An ardent student of Literature)
10+ Correct = EXCELLENT (Likely a Professor of Literature)

Level I  (Easy):

1. Call me Ishmael. (Moby Dick, Melville)
2. Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice. (One Hundred Years Of Soltitude, Marquez)
3. All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. (Anna Karenina, Tolstoy)
4. You don’t know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, but that ain’t no matter. That book was made by Mr. Mark Twain, and he told the truth, mainly. (Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain)
5. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair. (A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens)

Level II  (Medium):

1. Midway on our life's journey, I found myself in dark woods, the right road lost. (Inferno, Dante)
2. As Gregor Samsa awoke from a night of uneasy dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. (Metamorphosis, Kafka)
3. Well, Prince, so Genoa and Lucca are now just family estates of the Buonapartes. (War & Peace, Tolstoy)
4. You are about to begin reading Italo Calvino's new novel, If on a winter's night a traveler. (If on a winter's night a traveler, Calvino)
5. Someone must have slandered Josef K., for one morning, without having done anything truly wrong, he was arrested.  (The Trial, Kafka)

Level III  (Difficult):

1. Howard Roark laughed. (The Fountainhead, Rand)
2. Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed. (Ulysses, Joyce)
3. It was a pleasure to burn. (Fahreheit 451, Bradbury)
4. In the late summer of that year we lived in a house in a village that looked across the river and the plain to the mountains. (Farewell To Arms, Hemingway)
5. Mama died today. Or, maybe, yesterday; I can't be sure. (The Stranger, Camus)

ANSWERS - Literary Closing Lines QUIZ

Below are answers to Closing Lines QUIZ.  Congratulations for getting more than 1 or 2 correct answers, as the quiz is rather difficult.  Opening Lines are generally more recognized than Closing Lines.  Thank you for taking the challenge, nonetheless.  You have an active curiosity!

1. "It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known."  (A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens)
2. "A LAST NOTE FROM YOUR NARRATOR. I am haunted by humans."  (Book Thief, Zusak)
3. "I lingered round them, under that benign sky; watched the moths fluttering among the heath, and hare-bells; listened to the soft wind breathing through the grass; and wondered how anyone could ever imagine unquiet slumbers, for the sleepers in that quiet earth."  (Wuthering Heights, Bronte)
4. "For all to be accomplished, for me to feel less lonely, all that remained to hope was that on the day of my execution there should be a huge crowd of spectators and that they should greet me with howls of execration."  (The Stranger, Camus)
5. “That might be the subject of a new story, but our present story is ended."  (Crime & Punishment, Dostoevsky)
6. "I got to light out for the Territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she's going to adopt me and sivilize me, and I can't stand it. I been there before."  (Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain)
7. “Yes.” (Ulysses, Joyce)

FULL REVIEW: On The Road (Jack Kerouac, 1957, 254 pages)

                                
As I embarked on ‘On the Road’ by Jack Kerouac, I must declare that I had high expectations and reservations.  How to describe the reputation of Kerouac as the voice of his generation, the Beat Generation, post WWII of the 1950’s era?  The language of his novel is dated by recognizable with phrases like ‘gone daddy’ and ‘cool cat.’  However the spirit of experimentation (sex, drugs, & jazz music), and that yearning to get on the road no matter where it leads, is familiar one. The novel has a compelling ‘hero,” the struggling writer, with no money, living with his aunt, desperate to experience all that life has to offer. And the prose is magnificent.

What surprised me though were the touching descriptions of passionate relationships within the novel, namely Dean Moriarty, and his initial love interest Terry.  And underneath the endless need to get ‘on the road’ is a deep search for meaning and revelation in life, in short a search for God, in my opinion.  This theme of the ‘Seeker embarking on a journey of self-discovery’ is one we have encountered in other works of Great Literature, namely Gilgamesh (20000 BC), Odysseus (800 BC), Dante (1308), and even K from the ‘Castle’ (1926).

  

Novel Background, Structure & Themes

Jack Kerouac finished writing the largely autobiographical ‘On the Road’ novel in 1951, but it was not published until 1957 by Viking Press. It originally met with mixed reviews due to the subject matter and depiction of Dean (mad eccentric or smart free spirit?).  The novel as consistently gained popularity to new generations concerned with the same themes implied the novel.  Recently it was recognized by Modern Library and Time magazine as one of the best 100 English-language novels of the 20^th century.

The novel contains five Parts (consisting of 14, 11, 11, 4 & 1 chapters respectively), many which describe specific road trips with ‘Sal Paradise,’ Jack’s alter-ego, and ‘Dean Moriarty,’ or Neal Cassady in reality, his high-spirited carefree friend who acts as a catalyst for their road trips.  The novel can be mistaken on the surface a simple buddy road trip story that Hollywood seems to churn out every year.  In addition to the aforementioned sex, drugs, & jazz music, the richness of the novel lies in the honest exploration on the nature of friendship, God’s existence, death, and the absolute joy of being alive and present in the moment.  Pretty heady stuff! 

The Nature of Friendship between Sal and Dean

The novel opens and ends with a line about Dean, and can be on the surface seen as the perfect buddy road trip story.  However with each trip, the main characters change (Jack for better, Dean for worse) and this has an effect on their relationship.  At the beginning, it is Sal who desperately depends on Dean to feel alive and latches on to his wild treks across the US:

 “I first met Dean not long after my wife and I split up…With the coming of Dean Moriarty began the part of my life you could call my life on the road.” (Part One, Ch. 1 opening paragraph) 

“But then they danced down the streets like dingledodies, and I shambled after as I've been doing all my life after people who interest me, because the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes "Awww!" (Part One, Ch. 1)  NOTE:  This quote was inspiration for Kate Perry’s popular ‘Firework’ song.

By the end of the novel, Sal has settled down with his new girlfriend Laura, and it is Dean who now needs the comfort and stability of his old friend to maintain his sanity and as a respite from his complicated life:

“So Dean couldn't ride uptown with us and the only thing I could do was sit in the back of the Cadillac and wave at him. The bookie at the wheel also wanted nothing to do with Dean. Dean, ragged in a moth-eaten overcoat he brought specially for the freezing temperatures of the East, walked off alone, and the last I saw of him he rounded the corner of Seventh Avenue, eyes on the street ahead, and bent to it again. Poor little Laura, my baby, to whom I'd told everything about Dean, began almost to cry.

"Oh, we shouldn't let him go like this. What'll we do?" Old Dean's gone, I thought, and out loud I said, "He'll be all right." And off we went to the sad and disinclined concert for which I had no stomach whatever and all the time I was thinking of Dean and how he got back on the train and rode over three thousand miles over that awful land and never knew why he had come anyway, except to see me.” (Part Five, third and second last paragraphs)

This is a complicated relationship, but how many of us haven’t in our lives gravitated towards that exciting and wildly free spirit, recognizing that to continue down that path could lead to madness?  We all have met our personal Dean Moriartys and we realize we need to ‘grow up’ and be ‘responsible’ but deep down secretly mourn the passing of that brilliantly burning bright phase of our lives!

The Spirit of being ‘On the Road’

Whenever Sal begins to feel restless, trapped or lonely, he heads on the road, either towards friends or along with them towards a sometimes not very clear destination.  The point is just to get on the move:

“It was drizzling and mysterious at the beginning of our journey. "Whooee!" yelled Dean. "Here we go!" And he hunched over the wheel and gunned her; he was back in his element, everybody could see that. We were all delighted, we all realized we were leaving confusion and nonsense behind and performing our one and noble function of the time, move. And we moved!”  (Part Two, Ch. 6)

One of my favorite descriptions is the joyful moment of the experience of new, unexplored territory, in this case Mexico in the novel:

“I couldn't imagine this trip. It was the most fabulous of all. It was no longer east-west, but magic south. We saw a vision of the entire Western Hemisphere rockribbing clear down to Tierra del Fuego and us flying down the curve of the world into other tropics and otherworlds. "Man, this will finally take us to IT!" said Dean with definite faith. He tapped my arm. "Just wait and see. Hoo! Whee"” (Part Four, Ch. 3)

“Behind us lay the whole of America and everything Dean and I had previously known: about life, and life on the road. We had finally found the magic land at the end of the road and we never dreamed the extent of the magic.” (Part Four, Ch. 5)

“Everybody's cool, everybody looks at you with such straight brown eyes and they don't say anything, just look, and in that look all of the human qualities are soft and subdued and still there. Dig all the foolish stories you read about Mexico and the sleeping gringo and all that crap)-and crap about greasers and so on-and all it is, people here are straight and kind and don't put down any bull. I'm so amazed by this.” (Part Four, Ch. 5)  ***CLICK Here for Full Passage of First Impressions of Mexico***

My Personal ‘Dean Moriarty’

Like all great literature, ‘On the Road’ made me reflect on my life, and it led me to an unexpected place.  That place was across-the-US border shopping trip in 1989 with my soon-to be wife Guylaine, my sister Enza, my cousin Rita and her younger sister Lidia.  

Lidia, to me, was my personal Dean Moriarty.  She had a tremendously free spirit and sense of adventure, in short, the life of the party!  After a full day of shopping for clothing and suitcases for her endless trips abroad, we all spent the night at a local disco.  Lidia had a little too much to drink and did a lot of dancing, and we had to carry her back to our hotel room where she promptly vomited up her Tequilas and Margaritas.  She fell asleep instantly on her bed with her clothes and shoes still on.  The next morning she was good to go, despite being chastised by her common-sense older sister; “Was it worth it to spend all that money on booze, if you can’t keep it down?” 

I never forget that moment.  Secretly we all wished we could be a little more like Lidia.  She had this constant drive to make the most out of life every moment she could.  Some would say that she was exhausting to keep up with.  Like Dean Moriarty.

Lidia Minicucci passed away suddenly in her sleep years later in 1998 of an apparent heart attack at the age of 32 after returning from yet another adventure, this time Aruba.  She lived her life as though she has needed to suck every moment from it.  This lesson has not been lost on us.  I now try to live my life after her example.

What triggered this bittersweet memory from reading ‘On the Road?’  It was the emotional ending, as Sal comes to realize with regret that Dean has exited from his life:

“I think of Dean Moriarty, I even think of Old Dean Moriarty the father we never found, I think of Dean Moriarty.”  (Part Five, ending line).

For me, the ending that came instantly to my mind was the following;

I think of Lidia Minicucci, I think of the trip she planned to visit us in Turkey we never realized, I think of Lidia Minicucci.




Rating:  10/10.

Memorable PASSAGE: On The Road - Mexico First Impressions

“ Then we turned our faces to Mexico with bashful-ness and wonder as those dozens of Mexican cats watched us from under their secret hatbrims in the night. Beyond were music and all-night restaurants with smoke pouring out of the door. "Whee," whispered Dean very softly.

"Thassall!" A Mexican official grinned. "You boys all set. Go ahead. Welcome Mehico. Have good time. Watch you money. Watch you driving. I say this to you personal, I'm Red, everybody call me Red. Ask for Red. Eat good. Don't worry. Everything fine. Is not hard enjoin yourself in Mehico."

"Yes!" shuddered Dean and off we went across the street into Mexico on soft feet. We left the car parked, and all three of us abreast went down the Spanish street into the middle of the dull brown lights. Old men sat on chairs in the night and looked like Oriental junkies and oracles. No one was actually looking at us, yet everybody was aware of everything we did. We turned sharp left into the smoky lunchroom and went in to music of campo guitars on an American 'thirties jukebox. Shirt-sleeved Mexican cabdrivers and straw-hatted Mexican hipsters sat at stools, devouring shapeless messes of tortillas, beans, tacos, whatnot. We bought three bottles of cold beer-cerveza was the name of beer-for about thirty Mexican cents"; or ten American cents each. We bought packs of Mexican cigarettes for six cents each. We gazed and gazed at our wonderful Mexican money that went so far, and played with it and looked around and smiled at everyone. Behind us lay the whole of America and everything Dean and I had previously known: about life, and life on the road. We had finally found the magic land at the end of the road and we never dreamed the extent of the magic. "Think of these cats staying up all hours of the night," whispered Dean. "And think of this big continent ahead of us with those enormous Sierra Madre mountains we saw in the movies, and the jungles all the way down and a whole desert plateau as big as ours and reaching clear down to Guatemala and God knows where, whoo! What'll we do? What'll we do? Let's move!" We got out and went back to the car. One last glimpse of America across the hot lights of the Rio Grande bridge, and we turned our back and fender to it and roared off.

Instantly we were out in the desert and there wasn't light or a car for fifty miles across the flats. And just the dawn was coming over the Gulf of Mexico and we began see the ghostly shapes of yucca cactus and organpipe on all sides. "What a wild country!" I yelped. Dean and I were completely awake. In Laredo we'd been half dead. Stan, who'd been to foreign countries before, just calmly slept in back seat. Dean and I had the whole of Mexico before us.

"Now, Sal, we're leaving everything behind us and entering a new and unknown phase of things. All the years and troubles! and kicks-and now this! so that we can safely think of nothing else and just go on ahead with our faces stuck out like this you see, and understand the world as, really and genuine! speaking, other Americans haven't done before us-they were here, weren't they? The Mexican war. Cutting across here with cannon."

"This road," I told him, "is also the route of old American 1 outlaws who used to skip over the border and go down to old Monterrey, so if you'll look out on that graying desert and picture the ghost of an old Tombstone hellcat making lonely exile gallop into the unknown, you'll see further . . ." "It's the world," said Dean. "My God!" he cried, slapping the wheel. "It's the world! We can go right on to South America if the road goes. Think of it! Son-of-z-bitch! Gawd-damm!" We rushed on. The dawn spread immediately and we began to see the white sand of the desert and occasional huts in the distance off the road. Dean slowed down to peer at them. "Real beat huts, man, the kind you only find in Death Valley and much worse. These people don't bother with appearances." The first town ahead that had any consequence on the map was called Sabinas Hidalgo. We looked forward to it -eagerly. "And the road don't look any different than the American road," cried Dean, "except one mad thing and if you'll notice, right here, the mileposts are written in kilometers and they click off the distance to Mexico City. See, it's the only city in the entire land, everything points to it." There were only 767 more miles to that metropolis; in kilometers the figure was over a thousand. "Damn! I gotta go!" cried Dean. For a while I closed my eyes in utter exhaustion and kept hearing Dean pound the wheel with his fists and say, "Damn," and "What kicks!" and "Oh, what a land!" and "Yes!" We arrived at Sabinas Hidalgo, across the desert, at about seven o'clock in the morning. We slowed down completely to see this. We woke up Stan in the back seat. We sat up straight to dig. The main street was muddy and full of holes. On each side were dirty broken-down adobe fronts. Burros walked in the street with packs. Barefoot women watched us from dark doorways. The street was completely crowded with people on foot beginning a new day in the Mexican countryside. Old men with handlebar mustaches stared at us. The sight of three bearded, bedraggled American youths instead of the usual well-dressed tourists was of unusual interest to them. We bounced along over Main Street at ten miles an hour, taking everything in. A group of girls walked directly in front of us. As we bounced by, one of them said, "Where you going, man?"

I turned to Dean, amazed. "Did you hear what she said?" Dean was so astounded he kept on driving slowly and saying, "Yes, I heard what she said, I certainly damn well did, oh me, oh my, I don't know what to do I'm so excited and sweetened in this morning world. We've finally got to heaven. It-couldn't be cooler, it couldn't be grander, it couldn't be any-thing."

"Well, let's go back and pick em up!" I said.

"Yes," said Dean and drove right on at five miles an hour. He was knocked out, he didn't have to do the usual things he-would have done in America. "There's millions of them all along the road!" he said. Nevertheless he U-turned and came by the girls again. They were headed for work in the fields;, they smiled at us. Dean stared at them with rocky eyes. "Damn," he said under his breath. "Oh! This is too great to be true. Gurls, gurls. And particularly right now in my stage and condition, Sal, I am digging the interiors of these homes as we pass them-these gone doorways and you look inside and see beds of straw and little brown kids sleeping and stirring to wake, their thoughts congealing from the empty mind of sleep, their selves rising, and the mothers cooking up breakfast in iron pots, and dig them shutters they have for windows and the old men, the old men are so cool and grand and not bothered by anything. There's no suspicion here, nothing like that. Everybody's cool, everybody looks at you with such straight brown eyes and they don't say anything, just look, and in that look all of the human qualities are soft and subdued and still there. Dig all the foolish stories you read about Mexico and the sleeping gringo and all that crap)-and crap about greasers and so on-and all it is, people here are straight and kind and don't put down any bull. I'm so amazed by this." Schooled in the raw road night, Dean was come into the world to see it. He bent over the wheel and looked both ways and rolled along slowly. We stopped for gas the other side of Sabinas Hidalgo. Here a congregation of local straw-hatted ranchers with handlebar mustaches growled and joked in front of antique gas-pumps. Across the fields an old man plodded with a burro in front of his switch stick. The sun rose pure on pure and ancient activities of human life. “

(Part Four, Ch. 5)