Immortalized as Dean Moriarty by Jack Kerouac in his epic novel, On the Road, Neal Cassady was infamous for his unstoppable energy and his overwhelming charm, his savvy hustle and his devil-may-care attitude. A treasured friend and traveling companion of Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, and Ken Kesey, to name just some of his cohorts on the beatnik path, Cassady lived life to the fullest, ready for inspiration at any turn.
Something I guess I should've known before picking this one up is that it's kind of for beat completionists only, cause Cassady here just writes about his childhood and memories of growing up- it's not the standard Kerouac cross-country adventures nor the crazy psychedelic writings of Burroughs. But regardless, it's still good. The memoir itself is roughly only a hundred pages if you exclude his 40 page tale of family history. Cassady was an incredibly fascinating guy, still a little sad we really only got to hear about his childhood and not like, what happened after that (Well, I guess you kinda do if you read all of the "fragments" and letters and extra stuff). Anyway, I like long sentences, this guy is great at describing stuff, too.
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