Off the road Book

It’s hard not to get caught up in the romance of Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady travelling across America in the 1950s. I keep thinking I’ll grow out of my fascination with Beat writers, but I haven’t yet. However, Carolyn Cassady’s memoir presents a starkly different perspective on Beat history: her story fills in the ‘inbetween’ times; a life of not being on the road, but at home with children and a real life.

In other books about Kerouac et al, both Neal and Carolyn are typically described in broad strokes: Neal was a sex maniac imbecile and Carolyn the pathetic idiot who tolerated him. In fact, Carolyn (I’ll forsake formality and refer to her by her first name, to save confusion) was educated, down-to-earth and clearly intelligent. Neal was a voracious reader, who had real potential as a writer, but instead excelled at the manual labour jobs he took to support his family.

While Carolyn is often left out of core Beat history, she clearly had close relationships with both Kerouac and Ginsberg. Off the Road recounts in detail (wow, a lot of detail… more on that later) her memories of the 40s, 50s and 60s in their company. The book is filled with amazing nuggets of information that I haven’t encountered in any other history of the Beat era. My favourite: Kerouac turned down an offer from Warner Brothers to adapt On the Road into a movie starring him and Neal, if he wanted the part.

For the Beat geek, it’s a more than worthwhile read. However, if you are not the type to break into seal claps at a mention of Michael McClure, it may just be a litany of descriptions of people you don’t know or care about.

Off the Road is, by definition, a very subdued read. It’s hard not to feel desperately sorry for Carolyn as Neal repeatedly runs away to have adventures, cheats on her countless times and generally saps all of her energy. It is, in part, a story of how difficult it was to be a young mother in an unstable relationship in the mid part of the twentieth century. Carolyn’s potential for career progression or simple autonomy is repeatedly submerged by the demands of childcare and Nealcare.

Did I mention the detail? Oh yeah, the book is long and, without any real structure beyond simple chronology, it becomes a slog to the end. My three-star review is a little generous, since I didn’t find it an especially enjoyable read. Nonetheless, Carolyn’s story is an interesting one, and this is an important piece of Beat history.