Overall, the novel it can be seen as a fictional yet autobiographical diary in which Dean embodies Neal Cassady, a close friend of Kerouac with whom he travels "coast to coast" through the United States. It is precisely this element that gives the story an absolute veracity that is perceived by the reader from the very beginning. For its content and language so explicit and uncomfortable, the work meets a tough opposition from the critic and gets the merited consensus only ten years after its publication.
