"on the Road With Henry James, Saul Bellow, and Aleko Konstantinov"

Dr. David Jenkins
Plovdiv University and the American University in Bulgaria

Perspective by Incongruity:
On the Road with Henry James, Aleko Konstantinov, and Saul Bellow
“‘What’s your road, man?--holyboy road, madman road, rainbow road, guppy road, any road. It’s an anywhere road for anybody anyhow…. I’m cutting along in my life as it leads me.’”
(Dean Moriarty, in Jack Kerouac’s On the Road 206).

Scene One: Waiting for a Train
Three men were standing together on Platform Five at the Baton Rouge Train Station. One was slightly built, the other two were burly, broad-shouldered and imposing. All were well dressed in the fashion of the time. Other than their improbable names, there was little to distinguish them from the other passengers waiting on the platform. Those names bore an uncanny resemblance to men who are very well known. The three men were Henry James, Aleko Konstantinov, and Saul Bellow. They were on their way to Chicago to visit...