Jack Kerouac S On The Road Turns 50
Yet when the novel—which might now be called “creative nonfiction”—appeared, its events were already 10 years in the past. And in 1947, when Kerouac (Sal Paradise in the book) hit the road, the America that obsessed him was already dwindling. Even bebop—apparently the only worthwhile product of modernity—was in decline, from Charlie Parker hot to West Coast cool. Kerouac mostly loved the vestiges of the Great Depression of the ’30s: the hobos, hitchhikers, migrant workers and good plain folks just trying to get by....