Charles Bukowski

....From Notes, "Kerouac had set him up for the sucker punch and Neal had bit, kept biting. but you know Neal was o.k. and another way of looking at it, Jack had only written the book, he wasn't Neal's mother. just his destructor, deliberate or otherwise" (24).

Thanks for posting this quote. I remember the Notes column very well, and remember feeling that Bukowski felt strongly that Kerouac had glorified Neal in a way that Neal could never possibly live up to. It was a huge monkey on his back and it probably helped destroy him... Kerouac did him no favor. The irony of that column (originally written for Open City or the L.A Free Press in the late 60s, I do believe) is that although Bukowski was never a Beat writer, it was HE who ended up writing the best and most realistic tribute that Neal could ever have - that Neal was an okay guy - rather than the tribute having come from one of the Beat writers right after Neal died. And that's about the only connection that Bukowski had with the Beats that I can see - writing briefly about one of their heroes.

As for the Kerouac's writings, I'm sure Bukowski read something of it or he wouldn't have had such strong feelings about how Kerouac had portrayed Neal. I hope so, because On the Road and Dharma Bums are beautifully written, inspiring and flowing works of art. They had considerable influence at the time, turning Kerouac into a cultural icon, and they are particularly great reading when one is young. ("Hit the road! Life is an adventure! Enjoy the moment! Spontaneous sex is okay!")

The problem is that Kerouac didn't seem to be able to live up to the freedom of spirit he wrote about when young in his later life, and died a truly pitiful alcoholic in his mid-40s, reverting back to his Catholic roots rather than his Zen philosophy, a man who appeared to be completely sentimentally attached and emotionally dependent on his mother. So much of what Kerouac wrote wasn't somehow real, perhaps in the same way that his portrait of Neal in On the Road wasn't real, and Bukowski finally set the record straight. He was one of the few people who saw what Neal was beyond Kerouac's glorified image of this essentially blue-collar guy. Yes, there's a beautiful irony in there somewhere that the gods had Bukowski step in for the final word. The Notes column was heartfelt and that's what made it memorable.