"Big Sur" published in 1962, is Jack Kerouac's account of his time spent
at Lawrence Ferlinghetti's rustic cabin at Big Sur. This volume
incorporates all of Jack's sing-song stream of consciousness poetic
prosy observations on his own mind, consciousness and state of being, as
well as those around him and his immediate surroundings.
If you
have never read Kerouac, this volume is not one to begin with. "Big
Sur" is his own diary of sorts during a period of his life where he
experienced extreme delirium tremens and thought he was losing his mind.
In this volume, between the mad spinning of every adventure he
experienced, there are moments of indescribable beauty in his writing
about nature, spirituality, and existence.
As a poet and a
novelist, Jack encompasses the true definition of a writer and poet: to
be an observer. He accomplishes this dramatically, and often quite
frightening, as he recounts what it feels like to go mad and hold it
together, simultaneous.
If you want to begin to read Kerouac, I
suggest starting with "On the Road, then "Dharma Bums" to understand
one, his style of writing, and two, the characters he mentions
throughout in each of his novels [who are indeed our most famous
literary figures.]
There is a documentary titled "Big Sur" [2013] that I recommend for it holds true to Jack's work and can be found at Sundance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3w71t...
I
am in awe of Jack's ability to accurately report and as a writer; "Big
Sur" is a deep steep climb upward to one's own soul, then a horrifying
downward spiral into one’s mind. Jack told the truth. He was not one
to write of denial and in that, we are left with a volume that
accurately describes one soul see-sawing from sanity to insanity, wide
awake.
Kerouac is my absolute most respected writer for he was
gifted with the ability to document everything he saw and deliver
several stories within one story, his own.
The beauty of Kerouac and "Big Sur" is simple. How many human beings can experience true hallucinatory states while going insane and come back to accurately write about it?