Kiss the Morning Star (review)

Inspired by Kerouac's Dharma Bums, best friends Anna and Kat embark on a road trip that is equal parts Horner's A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend (BCCB 6/10) and Bray's Going Bovine (BCCB 11/09). With no real objective except to cement their friendship and find God (in the nonreligious, beat-poet sense of the concept), they pursue a list of metaphorical destinations: old people, church, nature, drugs, meditation, etc. Cementing their friendship is complicated by the fact that they're also falling for each other, which is particularly confusing since neither of them really identifies as gay. Anna in particular is happy to remain undefined (both "lesbian" and "bisexual" have political connotations she feels divorced from), and her observations on the fluidity of her own identity are thought-provoking. The road trip itself, though, is improbably eventful, veering from harassment and robbery to an ill-fated attempt to join a mission to Mexico (church and old people: check) to hitchhiking with some free-spirited band groupies to backpacking in the wilderness, complete with bear attack (nature: check). Through it all both girls are trying to figure out how to build a meaningful future for themselves in which they can pursue their dreams (Kat's an artist, Anna a writer) without selling out. This is pure Kerouac tribute, all wacky encounters and frenetic revelations and self-conscious (bordering on pretentious) narration; each chapter also begins with a Kerouac quote. The book's contrived plotting and slightly distant characterizations leaves little for non-Beats to latch on to, but nascent Kerouac fans will eat it up.