synopsis:

this book is about dulouz, generally seen as the alter ego of jack kerouac himself. As we start out, we meet Dulouz alone on the mountain 'Desolation Peak' where he is working as a guard over the summer. His thoughts in this solitude make up the first part of the book, reflecting the deep loneliness and reevaluation of his life during his 63-day stay at this top. He fights with his buddhist beliefs, angry at not being able to let go of the world when he knows it is just an illusion, that the Void is all there is, and the Void doesn't care.

But summer ends, and we follow Dulouz down from the mountain, into the wild streets of San Francisco, then on to Mexico, Tangiers, Paris, London - on and on, always looking for something new. And in this quest he meets a lot of people, but he moves on, for ever in desolation. once down from the mountain, he sees how much life has changed once his novel On the Road is published

on this book:

the first part of this book differs a lot from the rest, and Kerouac had actually planned it as two different books. To the beat fan it is a good guide to the role of religion for the beat generation, or at least for Kerouac himself, because he writes about his thoughs about buddhism.this novel is one of the most personal and honest works of kerouac.