Jack Kerouac’s novel Big Sur is set largely during a stay in Big Sur, California. Published in 1962, it draws on Kerouac’s experiences during the summer of 1960, when he stayed at a cabin owned by his friend Lawrence Ferlinghetti.
The novel follows the fictionalized narrator Jack Duluoz as he retreats from public attention and struggles with exhaustion, alcohol, fame, and the pressures created by the success of On the Road. Big Sur is notably more anxious and reflective than Kerouac’s earlier travel novels.
The book includes fictional versions of several people from Kerouac’s circle, including characters based on Ferlinghetti and Neal Cassady. Kerouac’s Duluoz novels often transform autobiographical events through altered names and literary arrangement.
Big Sur is sometimes mistaken for a travel memoir because its California setting is so prominent. It is a novel, however, and its coastal landscape serves as the setting for a story about artistic burnout and personal decline.