Big Sur: Jack Kerouac

In 1960 Jack Kerouac was near breaking point. Driven mad by constant press attention in the wake of the publication of On the Road, he needed to `get away to solitude again or die`, so he withdrew to a cabin in Big Sur on the Californian coast. The resulting novel, in which his autobiographical hero Jack Duluoz wrestles with doubt, alcohol dependency and his urge towards self-destruction, is one of Kerouac`s most personal and searingly honest works. Ending with the poem `Sea: Sounds of the Pacific Ocean at Big Sur`, it shows a man coming down from his hedonistic youth and trying to come to terms with fame, the world and himself.