If you've read On the Road, then this is a must read. It is a true journey into the mind of a madman. A more intimate look into the man that defined a generation of our parents, parents. As a younger reader of the generation today it is beneficial for us to see how people lived in past generations and take with us their experiences that in a sense you could not experience today. If I've taken anything from this book its the showing of the need for insanity in the life of Kerouac. And the need for constinent movement, not just in the physical sense but also in the mental sense of having his mind in constient movement.