So I just finished the book and was filled with a mix of sorrow and delight. You see the madness of these crazy young Americans who are called the Beaten Generation. You see them driving at such a high speed crossing numerous miles over and over again. On the road there was everything: sad whores, thrilled musicians, crowded bars, old bums, pretty gals, and sad and delightful thoughts. Neal was one of those craziest creatures. He brought laughters but also tears. His old gangs slowly began to criticize him though several years ago they looked up at him in such admiration. It's only because people were growing old and things were no more like before. Neal himself changed too. He was still delirious and still swung between his wives. But as he himself had said, he started to know things. He knew his buddies, he knew his love, and he knew he's gonna drive all along to dig this world. He once had left his lover and his friend in the cold wind, but it happened no more. I do love the depiction of their last travel to the Mexico City, Neal, Jack and Frank. The first time in his life, as Jack said, that the weather was not something sweating or freezing him but HIMSELF. The dead bugs smeared all over their shirts, and lovely policeman who's just the guardian of the sleeping town, tender and lonely in his night rounds. So many lovely characters in the book. So many stories about them. Yes this crazy and beaten life of the young is not that right as we see it from any aspects. But it's not as blank and meaningless. I can see that all these people are growing. No person is wrong. Everybody just lives the way he feels the life should be and that shall not be judged. But you have to know that you're growing. You're growing from every departure, every parting and every reunion. You're growing from knowing nothing to knowing a little about your life and others' and thus trying to do something right. It shall not be a compromise but a growing after understanding. The world is full of the comes and the goes, and everything is on their different roads, though all starting from the womb and ending up in the tomb. Whether we shall finally reach somewhere we want, we are at least once on the road and after all learn to grow. Still a lot of thoughts to be added and I'm gonna watch the movie adapted from the book.
