Widgetized Section

Go to Admin » Appearance » Widgets » and move Gabfire Widget: Social into that MastheadOverlay zone

Dirty Book

Author Jay Atkinson gets all muddy about rugby.

jayPhoto: J. Juniper Friedman

T

o relive Jack Kerouac’s On the Road journeys for his book Paradise Road: Jack Kerouac’s Lost Highway and My Search for America, Methuen native and Boston University prof Jay Atkinson biked the hills of San Francisco, swam through treacherous waters on Mississippi’s Gulf Coast, and hitchhiked from the Upper West Side of New York to Hudson Valley’s Taconic Parkway. He particularly struggled to find places to eat, since he recently turned vegan after a rugby injury. But with the drive and vitality of the Lowell-born Kerouac himself, Atkinson managed to write the book in a year. Now he’s gotten down and dirty with a new book, Memoirs of a Rugby Playing Man. Home from the road, he shares some secrets about the things (beside rugby) that energize him: Lowell, veganism, and Boston. Araki

1


People think of Kerouac as the great “road guy,” the wild, crazy guy who drove across the country. The lesser-known thing is that, like me, he was a devout Roman Catholic and an introverted guy who did not like to drive. He had to overcome his shyness.
 

2


Favorite Boston sport: Boston Rugby Football Club. I used to play for them. I still feel a strong connection to them.
 

3


My favorite hideaway bars are P.J. Ryans in Somerville and the Bell and Hand, which was an old Boston Rugby Football Club bar.
 

4


A source of inspiration is Walden Pond in the offseason. This year, I swam across it in a wetsuit when no one was around, and skated on it in the winter. I like to see it as it must have been like when Henry David Thoreau was there. The only time to not go is in the summer.
 

5


In Lowell, I like a vegan restaurant called Life Alive and another called simply the Viet-Thai Restaurant. They’re unpretentious and inexpensive and serve a lot of good, vegan-friendly food.
 

6


I wrote a book (Legends of Winter Hill) about a police officer in Somerville, Joe McCain Sr. His son, Joe McCain Jr., is a Somerville police detective and a vegan who told me about myvega.com. It has a line of protein products to maintain your strength and endurance for sports while still being a vegan.