On the Road (Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century) by Jack Kerouac Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of On the Road (Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century)
Book Review: intense, passionate, daring... need I say more?
Summary: 5 Stars
When was the last time that you heard someone make it all the way across the country on a mere $15? Kerouac's book "On The Road" captures the essence of being a free spirit. Sal Paradise, the main character is carefree and basically goes where the wind takes him. It's a tale of a man who didn't need to have a steady job to feel that life was worthwhile, a feeling most of us today only hope to attain, however unrealistic it may be nowadays. It tells of his mishaps and happenings that take place while he's hitchhiking with all different types of people. This book simply makes you want to get up and goBook Review: A Highway Trough My Mind!
Summary: 5 Stars
I first read "On the Road" on a boat sailing down the Amazon River, and my God, it blew me away! It ignited fireworks in my mind and my lifelong dream of one day travelling across the US was reinforced and enlarged. This beautiful book was a highway trough my mind, a firework of dreams and poetry. I was there with Sal and Dean on the road sharing their lives, and for a fragment of eternity I was part of the book - I didn't sense anything around me. It was beautiful and I can only recommend this book - this box of beautiful dreams and lunacy - to anyone with the smallest wish to experience the open road. This could be your ticket to a better lifeBook Review: I have nothing to offer except my own confusion....
Summary: 5 Stars
Holy shit. This is it. My god, buy this book, lock yourself in your bedroom, wrap yourself in about a million blankets and surrender to the the breathtakingly poetic and almost romantic prose of Kerouac's journey across the land. Drink ever word. Savor every verse and taste every image that the writer (isn't there a more worthy word to describe him?) has so vividly painted for you and you'll never be the same again.....Book Review: Equality, Optimism, and Reality
Summary: 5 Stars
Most people have not had the experience of traveling
across the country by car. Many have not been across the
country at all. In the book On The Road, author Jack
Kerouac takes the reader on a nationwide voyage with his
narrator, Sal Paradise. Sal leaves his hometown of New
York in 1947 with the plan to hitchhike to San Francisco.
The entire book takes place during these trips, and
Kerouac gives lengthy and unique descriptions of each
place and person met on them. I was swept up into the
adventures portrayed in each city and scene. The book
gave me a new and intimate look into the lives of all
classes of people. The characters who are engaged in
thes adventures view all aspects of life optimistically yet in
complete truth and practicality. Jack Kerouac realistically
describes the common life of diverse cities, cultures, and
people and gives the reader a magical perspective on his
or her own life.
The narrator of this book, Sal Paradise, is a man whose
accounts during his adventure are given with equality and
admiration for all things in life. He explains and gives details
about different groups located every place he meets.
These passages give readers truthful and accurate yet
intimate experiences with cultures they may have never
been exposed to. Here is a vivid example of his description:
"We stopped along the road for a bite to eat. The cowboy
went off to have a spare tire patched, and Eddie and I sat
down in a kind of homemade diner. I heard a great laugh,
the greatest laugh in the world, and here came this rawhide
oldtimer Nebraska farmer with a bunch of other boys into
the diner. Everybody else laughed with him. He didn't have
a care in the world and had the hugest regard for
everybody. I said to myself, Wham, listen to that man laugh.
He came booming into the diner, calling Maw's name, and
she made the sweetest cherry pie in Nebraska, and I had
some with a mountainous scoop of ice cream on top."Book Review: Mad Beat(atific) dash across Post WWII America !
Summary: 5 Stars
The book Truman
Capote called typewritten,
not written, chronicles the
Beat Generation's coming
of age in America. Links in
here to all the famous Beat
writers. Also see John
Clellon Holmes' lesser
known version, Go: A
Novel .