The Town and the City

Although Jack Kerouac is best known for the experimental, jazz-like prose and the rebel heroes of On the Road, his classic coming-of-age novel, The Town and the City, is no less compelling. It is a highly autobiographical work, large in scope and charged with energy, clearly conveying Kerouac's view of himself as a visionary artist and a member of a new generation. Inspired by his idol, Thomas Wolfe, Kerouac explores the emotional territory of his boyhood through the five sons and three daughters of the Martin family. Growing up in a dying Massachusetts mill town, the young Martins must come to terms with their father's bankruptcy and World War II as they search for their own identities in the post-war years. Kerouac's own portrait is apparent in three of the sons: Joe, the wild risk taker; Francis, the intellectual and cynic; and Peter, the football player and independent thinker. In the end, it is Peter who drops out of college and begins a trip across America, a harbinger of On the Road.