by Jack Kerouac
First published 1972
Jack Dulouz, Kerouac's alter ego, seeks refuge from his celebrity in a Big Sur cabin. But the party follows him, and Dulouz must confront the dark realities of his alcohol addiction and the pressures of being a famous writer. As the summer wears on, Dulouz's mental state unravels, and he careens between moments of mystical clarity and terrifying delusions. In the end, Dulouz must choose between the siren call of the open road or the uneasy comfort of domesticity.
Genres: american-fiction, addiction, 20th-century, biography-memoir
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, intimate
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Big Sur, San Francisco
Period: 1950
208 pages · Paperback · New English Library
Content warnings: alcohol-abuse, mental-illness