by JACK KEROUAC
'Those books! If only I had time to read them, and more. The impatience I feel! The time running off like sand.'
'Orpheus Emerged' is one of Kerouac's lesser-known works and was actually published posthumously, having been 'discovered by his estate' long after his death in 1969.
Far from being a poetic masterpiece in the vein of arguably his best-loved novel in 'On The Road,' this short story is an interesting tale nonetheless, revolving around a group of friends who are studying at university, and a love triangle that develops between two of the young men and one of their female friends.
There is very little to no action whatsoever involved, yet Kerouac's writing style still manages to both captivate and fascinate. There are some fantastic lines that really reveal how Kerouac viewed the futility of life, brought to life through the very real and believable, philosophy-orientated student characters that he creates: 'People waste all their time. They're alive for just so long, and they waste their time on recriminations and retributions and all such nonsense.'
'Orpheus Emerged' seems so far removed from the style of his later, trademark 'Beat' writing that - on those grounds alone - this is a must-read story if only to see for oneself how much the style of his writing changed in such a short time to such an overwhelming degree. Famed for his use of 'spontaneous prose' in classic novels such as the aforementioned 'On The Road, his writing here in 'Orpheus Emerged' bears very little in common with the ground-breaking style that he later developed and that subsequently served to make him internationally infamous.
'I'm remembering everything now, and all the things I wrote that don't mean anything, and the things I wrote that meant too much. On human terms, you see, that's how life is. On human terms, I don't want those terms. they're ugly; there's no more beauty.' I revolt! I revolt! I'm finished! God's defeated me�'
This novel does in fact represent one of the first major pieces of writing that Kerouac set his talents to, penned 'when the 23-year-old writer still signed his work 'John Kerouac' and was deeply immersed in the process of finding the voice that came to express the spirit of a generation.'
While 'On The Road' is THE novel of Jack's to find solace in if you're in need of being seriously inspired and reminded that zest for living life to the full should come as standard in everybody's heart and soul, 'Orpheus Emerged' - for all its relatively boring premise - is still well worth reading, for the quality of the prose within does subtly hint at Kerouac's impending throes of genius throughout. (Steve Rudd)
ISBN 0-7434-5255-0 (published in 2000, by the Estate of Stella Kerouac)