A mixed bag
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Kerouac's dedication to his practice of "spontaneous prose" inevitably led to mixed results and this book is no exception; indeed, the huge gulf between the best and the worst of Kerouac's writing is nowhere more apparent than here. You can't really blame him for that, as he himself did not intend the book for publication. He may well have chopped (even if he would not have revised) the text before it had gone out. I only wish that someone now would publish a 100 page version, including only the strongest sections that are actually relevant to its stated topic (ie Kerouac's vision of Neal Cassady). As it is, alas, the reader must wade through pages and pages of rambling digressions on many other things, much of it obscure, tedious, jaw droppingly mysogynistic or just plain silly, in order to find the passages of amazing lyrical intensity for which the book is (justly) famous.
I would read On The Road first, as it's a much better and more accessible book. Then, if you're still curious to know more about Jack and Neal, then take the plunge and skim this book. It feels as exciting and frustrating as prospecting for gold. At its best, the "visionary" prose on display here is like nothing ever written before or since.
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An Elegy
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'Visions of Cody' presents, in spontaneous prose and tape transcripts, Jack Kerouac's attepmt to describe his friend and inspiration, Neal Cassady (Cody). From the heady heights of hallucination and dream, to the mundane yet beautiful detail of everyday life Kerouac trawls his memory and his dreams for the definitive Cassady. On the way he struggles with the demons of humanity- time, identity and death. In his haunting desperation to show to the world the inner beauty of Cassady, Kerouac unwittingly unearth's his love/hate relationship for the man it seems he can live neither with nor without. 'Visions of Cody' is not only an insight into the life of Cassady, but a breathtaking insight into the collective consciousness of humanity. In Cody's final demise into normality we are forced to question our own lives and our own purpose. It seems a relatively free spirit like Cassady's could not survive in modern day America, and 'Visions of Cody' becomes an elegy for the man who could not bear to become his father. Beautiful and frank, a more direct route into the mind of Jack Kerouac than 'On the Road'.
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Often brilliant, sometimes maddening
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The best parts of this book are poetic, sad, exhilarating, and rank with the best of Kerouac. The maddening parts are self-indulgent, repetitive, boring, and sexist. Most of the latter are in the long central section (pages 120-250 of a 400 page book)and consist of transcriptions of tape recordings mostly of Kerouac and Cassady, with a party scene and some other people at times. Some of it is interesting, and some of it is of historical interest, but the rest doesn't need to be there. The book itself is a tribute to Cassady (like much of On the Road) and a lot of the sadness can be attributed to the fact that when it was written, Cassady had settled down to the type of married-with-children-and-a-job life that was what much of Kerouac's writing and adventures on the road were rejecting. Another part of the sadness has to do with the gap between America's promise and America's reality. Kerouac was hardly the first writer to notice this, but there weren't many writers, besides his friends, during the post-war economic boom and the complacency of the McCarthy and Eisenhower 50's who were noticing this. And while many have tried, no one has captured his unique poetic voice and vision. The fact that much of the book is like a long prose poem makes it difficult to read, but in the end, well worth it.
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Kerouac's "Finnigan's Wake"
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This is what 'On The Road' should have been. The first 150 pages are enough to send you either insane or to heaven, and are more akin to a portrait than a narrative piece, painting a picture of Kerouac's relationship with Neal Cassady far superior to that shown in 'On The Road'. The description and emotion of the 1st 150 pages are vivid and some of the most impressive in 20th century literature - indeed it is one of the three contemporary masterpieces - along with Joyce's 'Finnigan's Wake' and W.S.Burroughs' 'Naked Lunch' - in fact Burroughs' himself highlighted the first 150 pages of 'Visions of Cody' as Kerouac's masterpiece (excuse me if I don't insert the exact quote but I don't have it to hand). The centre section of the work is a transcription of conversations between JK and NC as well as a few other prominent figures such as Ginsberg. This is quite interesting but can get quite labourious. After these he returns to the style of the first section. In finishing I would like to say that I recommend this to any Kerouac reader and, if possible, if there's no-one to think you're going insane, read it out loud - and in Kerouac's voice - there is a CD you can get from verve records to get the rhythm of Kerouac's speaking - these methods help in understanding the book, just like you should read 'Finnigan's Wake' in an Irish Accent
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This is the one the separates the men from the boys.
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There are many readers that have read "On the Road" and rightfully appreciate it's narrative and structure. This is for the true Kerouac fan; this is a joy to read and to see what he can do with a sentence. There is a strong similarity between Kerouac turning a phrase and Miles Davis turning a note here. The story, in one sense, or the song, in another, is not important, but the song/story moves and grooves. It's the Bebop that drove Neil to bang on the dashboard that Keoruac is using. What become crucials is the flow and rhythym of the words. They flow and bounce. There is a cadance and and a movement. It's not following a easily developed narrative structure, but it doesn't try to.
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