Kerouac's feeling is genuine, and the self-indulgent gush of his prose is perhaps no worse than the pietistic style of those who have had to deal with real, grown-up saints.
The result was an episode recorded like "My First Communion" in a pietistic work"My First Self-Criticism.
To hell with its venal careerism, its hypocrisy, its prurience, its pietistic ruthlessness.