On the Road by Jack Kerouac Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of On the Road
Book Review: A Book Like No Other
Summary: 5 Stars
It's a stream of consciousness time book, that gives you a feeling of empathy for the main character Sal Paradise. The one he idolizes is also a misfit, but Sal sees the holy in him.It's a book about the underground life of Sal, his pal Dean Moriarty, and the others they run around with. In the end..I believe Sal has learned something from his idol, something that will help him on the rest of his life's journey.
Very interesting book, and I'm glad I finally read it. I have met people like Dean in my life, and now my sorrow for such characters goes deeper than ever.
Jeffrey McAndrew
author of "Our Brown-Eyed Boy"
Book Review: A Book That May Change Your Life
Summary: 5 Stars
First published in 1957, "On the Road" is Jack Kerouac's best known work and has come to define a group of writers and their style as the Beat Generation. Like other Kerouac novels, it is very much autobiographical fiction. The main character is Sal Paradise, one of Kerouac's pseudonyms, a young man in post-war America who has no real sense of who he is or even who he wants to be. He befriends Dean Moriarty, loosely based on Kerouac's friend Neal Cassady, and the two leave New England for a series of experiences that will take them form one side of the country to the other.
Along the way they will meet countless people in countless places, each time getting a look at life. By this I mean real life, not the Patty Duke nuclear family life of the ideal 1950's. This was the part of America that we weren't supposed to see. This was the proof that the materialism and ideals weren't working for everyone.
I cannot speak with any experience as to the reception this novel might have received from mainstream America, but I can speculate. Parents would in all likelihood have seen this book as a threat to "civilized" America, and would have locked their children in their bedrooms and thrown away the key at the very mention of Kerouac's name.
The drug use in the novel is rampant. Dean and Sal smoke "tea" with nearly everyone they meet. They pal around with "dangerous" jazz musicians. Keep in mind this was written during the first years of the Cold War and McCarthyism was at its height. Musicians, artists, actors and writers were finding themselves blacklisted for being communists everyday.
The book also eats away at the American ideal of good work getting one ahead in life. Dean has no real job. Sal is a writer, which is no real job either in some people's closed minds. When they make friends with crop workers, working the crop is the furthest thing from their minds. Everything is to be done "manana" which of course means "tomorrow."
Jack Kerouac was a man who was years ahead of his time. It is unfortunate that even now his work cannot enjoy universal praise, for the ideals he argued against then are in many ways only stronger now. It is hard to believe that "On the Road" was published more than 40 years ago, but is equally impossible to believe that it could have been made today.
It is hard to put into words exactly what this book has meant to me personally. I think the perfect analogy would be one that Michael Stipe, lead singer of R.E.M., once made about the Velvet Underground. I paraphrase here, but the words were to this effect. Only 1,000 people bought a Velvet Underground album, but they all went and started bands. "On the Road" was the first book that made me excited about the idea of writing. While my own attempts have been unsuccessful, the desire is and always will be there. How sad that I had to wait until college before I even learned there was a man named Kerouac and that he may have been the finest American writer of the last 100 years. Two other quick Amazon picks are Howl by Ginsberg, The Losers' Club by Richard Perez
Book Review: A Brilliant piece of Work--The Best Book EVER!
Summary: 1 Stars
This is such a weird book, and I'm glad Kerouac and Cassady and Ginsberg and all those other gay people did all that on the road stuff. It's hilarious to see how they screwed their lives up. A great work of art. Ha ha.Book Review: A Dizzying Trip Through Now
Summary: 5 Stars
This was the book that defined a generation. It's full of wildness and frenzy, booze,sex, dreams, and it journeys through an America that is now lost and forgotten. The characters are all drawn from the cool poets, artists, and hypsters of the late forties, the guys and gals that whored and drank and dreamed and traveled through the American night, through the sizzling jazz blasting a whole through the universe. In other words, this book rocks in a way that is seldom found in today's manufactured museums of big houses and their endless call for books that sell, sell, sell.No, this is not Harry Potter - this is real life - this is what it's all about - this is a blood and bones view of a beat zen world before zen was cool! I can't praise it highly enough. It's got zest ... Better still, it's got balls!
Book Review: A Journey of a Lifetime
Summary: 5 Stars
On the Road reminded me of many dreams I've had in the past of exploration and exploitation of the world around me. Sal,who is the alter ego of the author, embarks on the trip of a lifetime across the country a number of times with practically nothing to spend or game plans along the way. With his buddy Dean, he lives out the american dream of sorts. This book really provides insight into the life of a drifter coming into the world with a few chips and an open mind, and coming out not only with greater physical wealth but also a treasure chest of memories and lessons. Traveling to places like Chicago, San Francisco and New Mexico Sal was given a perfect way to taste every flavor in the melting pot.The book was very poetic and resembling of actual thoughts and speech which is a style I prefer, so I would recommend this book to anyone with knowledge of the other side of life, beyond the 9 to 5 ratrace which this reality has become for so many. If you liked Perks of Being a Wallflower, then this is a sure shot for you.