Dr. Sax

This is not only my favorite book written by Kerouac, but one of my all time favorites. I read this book at least once every two years or so. That being said, I rarely recommend this book to others. It is not an easy read. The hardest obstacle to overcome is the style in which it is written. Kerouac was more interested in a poetic exploration of childhood rather than a clear exposition. I have a habit of continuing to read, listen, or watch even if I don't understand something. I figure I'll either figure it out on the way, or I'll catch up later. The first person I lent this book to returned it the next day, he stopped reading after two pages. It took me awhile to enter the world of Dr. Sax, but it was well worth the time. When I was young the line between fantasy and reality was fuzzy, and I see this book as exploring that relationship. I particularly enjoy that, as the story progresses, the fantasy world overtakes the more biographical elements. The next person I lent the book to returned it after a month. With it they gave me a page of notes, observations and questions.If you love Kerouac, poetry, and have a flair for the abstract, then this is well worth your time. If you like reading maps and floor-plans masquerading as books, then stick with Michael Crichton and the like.

Great essential book, own most of Kerouacs work an for whatever reason always thought this wouldn't be very good...it's better than good, it's mindbending an breaks doors down, like visions of Neil but in a totally different way, an more accessible to the casual fan....and way better than old angel midnight....it's one of many of j.kerouacs finest moments

Kerowac

This is the shroud of dark dreams and the mournful laugh of of the hidden and forgotten shade if our childhood. @_DrSax

I liked it but I was glad when I finally finished it. It was probably me, but I've always liked all his other works so I gave this a try.

This book has two blank pages. It's defective.

I pulled a 1959 copy of Doctor Sax off my shelf for my two-day hot springs retreat - I don't remember how I ended up with it, but the spine looked like it had never been cracked, despite some water and sun damage on the ends of the pages. I tore through it in less than two days -- Kerouac's prose rushes on in a torrent, I can surf it in my brain as quickly as my eyes take it in. Reading aloud to the cat named Elvis, I enjoyed the rhythm and the cadence of Kerouac's words even more.The stories of his childhood - a brown bathrobe, a flood, scaring oneself silly with shadowy characters inspired by radio dramas, acting out a rich fantasy life (stealing swim trunks and scaring a friend as "The Black Thief") along with the flavor of French-Canadian French. The story focuses little on technology or current events - aside from the flood - and makes only one mention of racial segregation.Despite the lack of current events -- the protagonists rich fantasy life reflects some kind of battles, heroes and villains, reflected in the current events of the time without really referring to those events -- more generalized than specific foes.A fast fun read - definitely a different take on the same sort of privileged white male preadolescence in "Dandelion Wine" or other similar stories.

By moonlight, the mighty Merrimac foamed a thousand white horses upon the tragic plains below. Lowell, Mass. had great trees of antiquity waving over lost arrowheads, Indian scalps, beads, and were stepped upon, barefoot by Indians. Merrimac froth on rocks,rolls to the kale, calmed in stone holes, and lies on slaty sharp rocks. The shadows birth more than malevolent leers, memories, and apocalyptic visions.Doctor Sax lived in the woods. March melts bring Doctor Sax and the rainy nights of the castle. Late August,the ballgame is over, Doctor Sax has disappeared over the riverbank and's gone home to bed. Doctor Sax is a widower...a bachelor...a crazy Lord of all the mud he surveys. Educated in a panel of ice and snow, taught by the fires, in the strangest monastery in the world, where Sax saw the snake and the snake saw Sax...When Doctor Sax did get back to Butte, where he's really from, he settled back to long night poker games with old Bull Balloon, the wildest gambler in town."Doctor Sax didn't frighten me. I sensed he was my friend...my ghost, personal Angel, private shadow, secret lover." "I gave up the church to ease my horrors... too much candlelight...too much wax." Doctor Sax takes off his limp black vestments, the silly cape, the silly shroudy hat, with that black face the Lord prescribed..." He said, "Nothing works in the end, nobody cares what happens to you, the universe doesn't care what happens to mankind...there's nothing we can do about it."This is Kerouac's fantasyland story for quixotic youth who fancy chimeric deeds, and beings, from battle cruisers to gangland walked by gandydancers, to immutable imps, and jumping Jack's manipulated by strings, all going for the jugular during the dark of night, the time so revered by the Doctor Sax' s of the world.I have always enjoyed Jack Kerouac's work. It's easy to lose a sense of time.

ジャック・ケルアックとの出会いは高校生の時で、河出書房から出ている「路上」を何度も読みました。しかし、やはり「路上」のような作品は、２度と出ない、ということでしょうか。話の筋以前に、まず、英語が容赦なく、難解です。最初の５０ページまでしか、読むことができなかったのですが、ドラキュラが出てきたかと思えば、野球の話が始まったり・・・。何の話なのか、よく分かりません。野球の話、ということだと、やはり、故郷の少年時代の親友達との話が始まると、止まらない感じで・・・。読者からすると、ただダラダラしているだけの感じです。もちろん、私の英語力の問題があり、英語が達者、かつこの作家を愛する方なら、楽しめるかもしれません。しかし、私は、一応、この作家と、ビート・ジェネレーションの時代と人間模様が好きなつもりですが、この作品は最後まで読もうという気持ちにはなれませんでした。繰り返すようですが、英語が相当に達者で、ケルアックがとても好きなので、ある程度、失望覚悟、ということでないと、購入はお薦めしません。