Over the last year I’ve been told that a common question I may come across during an interview is “what is your favorite book?” I must say that this one is a particularly challenging question to answer. Not as hard as “what is your favorite painting,” but still hard. While the mantle of favorite book does go to the Ramayana, I feel obligated to also include On the Road by Jack Kerouac. 

Recently, I had the opportunity to read this classic in conjunction with an American-history based curriculum for my senior year. Along with reading the novel in bed, tucked in, hiding from the cold, and with my cat asleep by my feet, I also followed along with the audiobook version. In retrospect, I feel that it was actually the audiobook which truly opened my eyes to Kerouac’s monologue-ed world. According to my dad – who I am in full agreement with – the book reads like Kerouac (or his fictional character version Sal) is a stranger sitting next to you at a bar. You just sit there and listen to him as he Forrest-Gump’s his life story. It’s convoluted and confusing, but in some ways it’s clearer than any other polished novel so to speak. He speaks of the novel’s time and the American landscape through a candid and pure lens unabridged by any editor. You truly feel that you are also in a travel bureau Cadillac as Dean Moriarty cruises quite liberally over the speed limit. 

In tandem with reading (and listening) to the book, I was also assigned an open creative project on the novel. To elaborate, anything would have worked. I probably could have done a creative dance and it would have passed if I could clearly interpret the story. In the end and after much deliberation, I chose to draft up a map detailing Sal’s (the main protagonist’s) voyage across the United States and later Mexico. While there are other roadmaps from On the Road in existence, I will self-servingly brag that this is one of the more well-detailed ones. I will admit that seeing Sal, Dean, Marylou, Ed, Carlo, and every other characters’ trip all mapped out in glorious Canva edits really helped map out the true scope of the story, provide some context to the events, and ground the winding plot of the novel. I hope that it may help you do the same!