On the Road Part 1, Chapter 7 Summary

  • Sal moves in, for the time being, with Roland Major in an apartment owned by Tim Gray’s parents.
  • Roland Major writes a short story about those awful arty types. They’re sort of like pseudo-intellectuals, "sucking up" the blood of America. Ew.
  • Sal settles in with these new people, but no one will give him a straight answer as to where Dean is.
  • FINALLY, Carlo Marx calls up and tells him the deal with Dean.
  • The deal with Dean is this: he’s sleeping with his first wife, Marylou, in a hotel room (periodically), but then he’s also having sex with this new girl named Camille, in another hotel room, which we hope is located in a different hotel.
  • There’s also something going on with Carlo and Dean. They take Benzedrine together and try to connect their minds, have groovy trips, and free themselves of boundaries.
  • Dean has a detailed schedule worked out, with sex and Benzedrine blocked in. Also both of these women are in love with Dean, but Marylou is fine with divorcing him. We can not possibly make this more interesting for you.
  • They finally go to see Dean, who was apparently in the middle of banging Camille, because he comes to the door naked and she’s all "black lace" and "creamy thighs" on the bed. So of course Dean takes off to go drinking and leaves her there. Also, Carlo had to hide because Camille doesn't like him.
  • Dean is broke because he hasn’t had time to work. Honestly, all the sex keeps him so busy.
  • He says he will get Sal a job at the Camargo markets.
  • They all get drunk, lose their keys, and try to go back to the nice apartment, you know, with that other crowd that doesn’t like Dean.
  • Sal is totally broke and sleeps outside. Which, again, looks something like a pattern of recurring events.