Lonesome Traveler

Rating:
Summary: Another roller coaster ride from Kerouac, this non-fiction
Review: "Creative non-fiction" is a come lately term but it fits Jack Kerouac's 1960 account of his real life travels and experiences. The spontaneous, experimental style that marks his fiction is in high use in Lonesome Traveler, particularly in the chapter devoted to the railroad. In that piece, language becomes a mimic of the sounds and rhythms of the environment in which he works, the Southern Pacific runs between San Francisco and San Jose in the early 1950's. Forget words and structure as you know it, but don't worry about getting lost in the prose. If you trust Kerouac, he won't let you get lost, he brings you home in the end. As he visits Mexico, the shipping lanes, the streets of New York, a lone fire look-out on Desolation Peak in Washington State, and Europe, he speaks openly of what drives him. The last chapter is an ode to the vanishing hobo whose ethic he has embraced; as this was written, our changing society was transforming hobos into vagrant criminals and the homeless problem, extinguishing their culture with suspicion and policing. Kerouac is both Thoreau and the hobo, the fine or wide line depending upon how you look at it being his education and pursuit of spirituality.

Rating:
Summary: Another roller coaster ride from Kerouac, this non-fiction
Review: "Creative non-fiction" is a come lately term but it fits Jack Kerouac's 1960 account of his real life travels and experiences. The spontaneous, experimental style that marks his fiction is in high use in Lonesome Traveler, particularly in the chapter devoted to the railroad. In that piece, language becomes a mimic of the sounds and rhythms of the environment in which he works, the Southern Pacific runs between San Francisco and San Jose in the early 1950's. Forget words and structure as you know it, but don't worry about getting lost in the prose. If you trust Kerouac, he won't let you get lost, he brings you home in the end. As he visits Mexico, the shipping lanes, the streets of New York, a lone fire look-out on Desolation Peak in Washington State, and Europe, he speaks openly of what drives him. The last chapter is an ode to the vanishing hobo whose ethic he has embraced; as this was written, our changing society was transforming hobos into vagrant criminals and the homeless problem, extinguishing their culture with suspicion and policing. Kerouac is both Thoreau and the hobo, the fine or wide line depending upon how you look at it being his education and pursuit of spirituality.

Rating:
Summary: Sometimes a Great Writer
Review: As with most Kerouac books, Lonesome Traveler lacks cohesion. This is naturally the essence of spontaneous prose. What this book offers, however, is a good sampling of the types of scenarios Kerouac liked to explore: 1) The Road, 2) Holing up in Isolation, 3) New York, 4) Relationship between the past and present.

While some readers may never fully appreciate Kerouac's descriptions of life as a hobo, riding railcars throughout California, most must at least admire the experience. It serves as a solid juxtaposition to the New York Scenes and the Big Trip to Europe. These sections are held together by the Desolation Peak section which, along with the New York Scenes Kerouac excelled at writing, proves to be the best writing in the book. The final piece--The Vanishing American Hobo--seems to be Kerouac's attempt to explain why he never fully embraced the wanderer's life.

This book is a fairly good introduction to Kerouac's work, especially considering its autobiographical style which later become Kerouac's forte. As always, Kerouac does a masterful job of capturing the mood of the time and placing his reader in the middle of it all. Still, I would probably save this one for later and read one of his fictionalized bios first, such as On the Road or Subterraneans.

Rating:
Summary: A tale of 2 halves
Review: i have just finished the book for the second time managing to hold together the now loose leafed pages of my 30 year old copy while trying to read most of the book outdoors.it just intrigues me that this book can be so devoid of true literal gems right through his railroad and seamen days as though a real working life just shuts out his natural reaction to his waking dream that he finds himself in. However after a fun but claustrophobic period back in his native and tireless New York the section of his isolation in the mountain shack really soars and this is where the beauty of his style, with references to the void and his own belief that he has the answers to its formeless form. You feel the strength of his journey and the honesty of his emotion and just know he is free enough to write at his best now.A wonderful book for dreamers.

Rating:
Summary: The Wanderer's Bible
Review: I recently bought this book as a present for my daughter
to read and that prompted me to fish out my old road worn
copy which I carried around religiously during the days her
mother and I bummed around the western US & Mexico.
Kerouac always had the ability to spiritualize the
experience for me. This book exemplifies his respect
and admiration for those individuals who have forsworn the
luxuries of a normal life for the intrisically demanding
rigors of the spiritual quest. Rereading this book had
me aching to be back on the road once again. Want to do
Mexico again, Angela?

Rating:
Summary: Lonesome Traveler is a completely unique experience
Review: On the Road instantly became my favorite book after reading it a short time ago, and of course it prompted me to read more of Kerouac in hopes of attaining that same free spirted prose he is known for. Lonesome Traveler delivers a much different experience to the reader than does On the Road, but is equally as moving. The flow of this book can be hard to follow at first, but I found the more I read, the more I began to "be" Kerouac. Many times I found myself reading a passage over and over again in an attempt to completely and fully understand the feelings and emotions Kerouac is trying to convey. The end result is a longer read than the number of pages may suggest, but a priceless experience that is rarely found in modern literature.