The Value of Solitude

Description

Circumstances as a Distraction from Friendships

Jack's relationship with the group of old friends in San Francisco are ones he recognizes as having been valuable once when their world was different, and they all had different responsibilities and commitments. Now the relationships are ties to revisit the way one visits a museum. His friendship with Cody is a good example of something that was valuable when they were traveling together, but now is even more destructive in its new context. Their worlds had diverged so dramatically; Kerouac emerged into the world of writing and publishing books, and Cody making a life and family as a working man. When Cody tried to revive their friendship by partying, sharing girls, and drinking for days on end, it proved more a complication than a restoration. There were also his friendships with Ben Fagan and George Baso that...