Jack Kerouac's iconic 1950s novel On the Road is a Beat Generation classic, chronicling the adventures and misadventures of Kerouac's travels crisscrossing North America with Neal Cassady, William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, and other colorful companions. Now gifted writer Jay Atkinson hits the road to retrace Kerouac's legendary journey today. The author's experiences offer fascinating insights on American culture and society then and now and illuminate his own quest for self-understanding and discovery.
Absorbing and beautifully written, Paradise Road is essential reading for Kerouac fans as well as lovers of engaging travel memoirs and anyone interested in American life and culture.
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Jay Atkinson grew up in Methuen, Massachusetts, a few miles from Jack Kerouac's hometown of Lowell. In this book, Atkinson compares his experiences with those of his former "neighbor," detailing how the country has changed since Kerouac's time. But perhaps the most intriguing aspect of this book is the various ways in which the small towns of America have remained the same. Bringing to mind the writing of Kerouac, Walt Whitman, Henry David Thoreau, and Jack London, Atkinson's narrative is a celebration of ordinary American towns and the extraordinary people who reside there.
Like Kerouac, Atkinson finds his journey interrupted, changed, and enriched by people he meets along the way?—a barmaid who struggles to quit drinking on the job, a wizened bus driver laboring to fix his car and drive his wife to her cancer treatment, and the former college basketball star who still lives with his ex-girlfriend because neither of them can afford to live alone.
Paradise Road takes you on a fascinating, complex, and revealing American journey.
praise for jay atkinson
"The bard of New England toughness."
—Men's Health
For Legends of Winter Hill: Cops, Con Men, and Joe McCain, the Last Real Detective:
"A page-turner. Legends of Winter Hill, which had me cringing one minute and laughing the next, broadened my street education . . . I guarantee it will do the same for you."
—Boston Sunday Globe
"Collaring the reader from the start, Legends of Winter Hill pushes hard and fast, propelling larger-than-life characters across the page, neverloosening its grip."
—Boston Herald
For Ice Time: A Tale of Fathers, Sons, and Hometown Heroes:
"A memorable journey, part reportage, part memoir, all heart."
—Bill Reynolds, The Providence Journal
"[Atkinson] seamlessly weaves his past with current events, detailing the team's fortunes while lovingly recalling his own at that time of life."
—The Virginian-Pilot
"A bona fide masterstroke."
—Publishers Weekly
"Far more than just a chronicle of a high school hockey season, Jay Atkinson's book is an evocative, bittersweet, poetic journey of a grown man trying, as we all try, not to recapture youth but to remember the splendor of it."
—H. G. Bissinger, author of the bestselling Friday Night Lights
For Caveman Politics:
"Atkinson keeps his plot moving at a good pace, offering enough twists to keep the reader's attention, but it is the humor and insight of his characters that make the novel work."
—The New York Times Book Review
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Brand New. 1st edition. 251 pages. 9.50x6.50x1.00 inches. In Stock. Seller Inventory # __0470237694
Book Description Condition: New. Noted writer Jay Atkinson recreates Jack Kerouac's legendary On the Road journey in contemporary North America Jack Kerouac's iconic 1950s novel On the Road is a Beat Generation classic, chronicling the adventures and misadventures of Kerouac's travels crisscrossing North America with colorful companions Neal Cassady and Allen Ginsberg. Num Pages: 272 pages. BIC Classification: HB. Dimension: 239 x 163. Weight in Grams: 480. . 2010. Hardback. . . . . Seller Inventory # V9780470237694
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Brand New. 1st edition. 251 pages. 9.50x6.50x1.00 inches. In Stock. Seller Inventory # x-0470237694
Book Description Condition: New. Seller Inventory # 8659997-n