Wednesday, March 6, 2019

6th sentence of the 6th book



The 6th book on my Kerouac bookshelf is Jack Kerouac's best book, The Dharma Bums (Penguin Books, 1976), and the 6th sentence (in honor of today being the 6th day of the month) is:
Both the little bum and I, after unsuccessful attempts to huddle on the cold steel in wraparounds, got up and paced back and forth and jumped and flapped arms at each our end of the gon. (p. 4)
FYI, "gon" is short for gondola, the type of train car they were riding. I have always puzzled over the phrase "at each our end of the gon." That seems awkwardly constructed to me, even allowing for Jack's unconventional prose.

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