Book Review: "Desolation Angels" by Jack Kerouac

I've got a confession to make: I've read this before. The reason why I read it again was simply because I found it lying around and thought 'oh wow, I haven't read this in ages!' as you do when you find random things whilst cleaning. Desolation Angels is perhaps one of those Kerouac novels that gets overlooked in favour of On the Road or even Mexico City Blues (I'm not sure why I have been seeing that around lately, but good for people reading Kerouac!) I once had a mentor who hated On the Road and couldn't stand Kerouac's style - but I have to say that though the man himself was flawed, I cannot fault Kerouac's classically beat style. It is fantastic and so is Desolation Angels.

The novel opens with Jack Duluoz (Kerouac’s semi-autobiographical persona) arriving at Desolation Peak, Washington, where he will spend 63 days as a fire lookout in the summer of 1956. Cut off from civilization and surrounded by the stark, desolate wilderness, Jack enters a deep introspective phase. While the sweeping mountain vistas initially fill him with awe, the isolation begins to take a psychological toll. Jack's solitude magnifies his inner turmoil, intensifying feelings of alienation and existential dread.

He begins to experience vivid hallucinations and dreams about friends, family, and his past adventures, which blur the line between reality and imagination. Despite his yearning for a deeper connection with the natural world and spiritual enlightenment, Jack feels trapped in the endless cycle of his thoughts, unable to quiet his mind or fully embrace the Buddhist philosophy he’s been studying. The isolation amplifies his loneliness, making him crave the social chaos he escaped from. The fact that we start off with these themes means that we are going to get our classic 'help me, I'm displaced in my own home!' novel from Kerouac and that means it's going to be really good.

During his time on Desolation Peak, Jack struggles with profound philosophical questions. He meditates daily, often focusing on Buddhist teachings like impermanence and the nature of suffering, but his thoughts are clouded by anxiety and doubt. The vast emptiness around him seems to mirror the existential void within. He wrestles with the impermanence of life, the futility of human pursuits, and the unattainability of enlightenment in a world filled with distractions.

Jack’s inner conflict deepens as he finds himself both attracted to and repelled by the idea of spiritual detachment. He longs for peace but is tethered to his desires, memories, and the need for validation from others. His journals from this time are filled with paradoxical reflections on the tension between the physical world and spiritual transcendence, as well as his ongoing struggles with his identity as both a man and a writer. We start to see where the term 'semi-autobiographical' comes from when talking about this novel as well. What I thought was really interesting about this section is that we may be getting that deep internal look at Kerouac that we crave from his texts, and that makes us kind of feel sorry for him.

Jack travels to New York City, where he plunges back into the lively Beat community. Parties, late-night intellectual debates, and jazz performances dominate his days and nights. He reunites with other key figures from the Beat Generation, including Gregory Corso and William S. Burroughs, and becomes immersed in the bohemian lifestyle of bars, poetry readings, and philosophical conversations. The city buzzes with life, but Jack feels increasingly detached from the hedonistic indulgences of his peers. Though the Beat community admires him for his success, Jack feels like an outsider.

He observes his friends’ chaotic pursuits of artistic and personal freedom with a critical eye, noting how many of them are consumed by drugs, alcohol, and their own egos. Jack’s spiritual aspirations, tempered by his time on Desolation Peak, contrast sharply with the urban decadence around him. The city serves as a testing ground for Jack’s newfound beliefs, but it only exacerbates his confusion. This is a bit weird because we know that Jack Kerouac was consumed by alcohol as well. But I think this is more of an observation of a culture he knew was doomed to die - he just didn't know when it was going to implode. We just know he was right.

I won't tell you everything that happens in the book, but we do this back and forth with fame, especially after publication. There is something deathly dark about this book underneath and to recognise it is to really get into the mind of the author and truly, what he is afraid of. He does not seem to be afraid of dying but is, instead, afraid of fading away without permanence. Yet, this is the same permanence that scares him: to be criticised without the knowledge or ability to defend himself since he is no longer there to do so. The question is: are we the things that Jack Kerouac feared all along? I think so, yes.