By Jack Kerouac
I bought this on Amazon, which is what I usually do when I know what I want to read and am impatient to get it. I was pleasantly surprised by the presentation. This edition is deckle edged, and I liked the cover art. I realized why when I read the bio of the illustrator, Rob Admiraal. He is a tattoo artist and illustrator. That explains why the cover looks like traditional style tattoo art. Of course, there is nothing about the book that relates to tattooing, but it does relate to one of my personal interests.
First published in 1962, this book gives the reader a window into the mind of the author as he drunkenly crashes into insanity before righting himself, only to die from an alcohol related hemorrhage, 7 years later when he was 47. Drunk, he is, but he is as drunk and coherent as he was when he appeared on William F Buckley’s show in 1968.
The story begins as he has taken a train from his home with his mother in Florida to San Francisco. He there to get a way from it all, and has a plan to sneak into town, and use a secret code name to contact his friend who has a private cabin down the coast in Big Sur. He plans to spend time alone there meditating, hiking, contemplating, and writing for six weeks.
He derails his own plan my getting drunk the first night in town, carousing with winos and friends, and missing his ride to the cabin the next day. Determined to do what he came to do, he gets a cab to take him down to the cabin, where he spends a few weeks doing as he planned.
Then he gets bored lonely, and that sends him off on another round of carousing and misadventures in the city and beyond. On multiple occasions he is pulled back to Big Sur but always with an entourage of friends and acquaintances, and plenty of bottles of wine. Each time he gets sicker and more paranoid until he returns one final time, this time in the midst of a toxic love affair with his friend’s mistress.
In the end he can’t sleep, he has embarrassed his good friend, and is involved in a toxic relationship with his friend’s mistress. The wine, the lack of sleep, and all the other craziness finally gets to him. The result is more insightful Kerouac, this book, the poem ‘Sea.’
