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Summary: Fabulous stuff
Review: Kerouac writes in such an invigorating, joyful style - not traditional but unconstrained and full of life and beauty - this is a life-changing milestone of a book that changes your outlook and fills you with desire for experience and life. A perfect way to escape the humdrum of day-to-day life and lose yourself in another world - and after all, thats what reading is about. Just listen to this quote:"The only people for me are the mad ones - the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the saem time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars" Beautiful. That says it all. If you haven't read it, you need to.
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Summary: Chronicle of a Depth Foresold
Review: The book was dropped in my lap by my older brother when I was in high school. It was identified with the "Beat Generation," which was itself described in pictures of dour bearded dropouts in magazine pictures with berets in dank cellers featuring espresso machines. There was a mismatch in the sequence. I could never find the archetype "Beat" in the story, although the term was mentioned in there. To me, Road meant escape, it meant a never-ending boyhood where the grim burdens of adult fifties responsibilities and limits might be simply shrugged off. (The other stepping-stones along that path were Peter Pan, Walden Pond and Electric Koolaid Acid Test.) You know how you can flip on the TV and know immediately whether you're watching drama or documentary? I never doubted the events in Road actually happened. It's basically a travel book for exuberant boys flying free (you can tell the wires are held by mothers and wives, but you suspend disbelief) with time and energy and some psychological problems. It's written in humorous childhood gusto, too. The boys pass through DC on the eve of Truman's 1949 inauguration and there is a row of mighty strategic Cold War weaponry and at the end is one solitary ordinary rowboat "looking pitiful and foolish in the snowy grass." "Ah, yass, ah, yass, man from Missouri as I am...that must be his own boat..." Priceless. We went hitchiking, feelin' free, along about the time Kerouac was settling in with his mother to drink himself to death. But it was exhilirating, for a time, it was...
Rating:
Summary: ONE OF MY 20 BOOKS OF ALL-TIME & I'M A PROFESSOR
Review: THIS BOOK IS THE BEST OF JACK KEROUAC AND , BY FAR, THE BEST OF THE "ROAD BOOKS" EVER WRITTEN (THE BEST IF YOU ASK ME). THE CHARACTERS ARE ALL VIVIDLY DEPICTED, THE ATMNOSPHERE TO ALIVE. IT HAS A LOT TO SAY ABOUT FREEDOM AND LONLINESS AND
AND SO THEY TRAVEL TO FIND THEMSELVES, WHETHER THEY KNOW IT OR NOT. KEROUAC AND HIS FRIENDS/CHARACTERS DRAG US THROUGH EVERY EMOTION, sadness, lonliness, hopefulness and JUST PLAIN MAD! I won't tell you too much or I'll ruin your experience. And that's what it is, an internal and external experience of being human now and then. THIS IS A BRILLIANT BOOK. IT IS A MUST READ!
Rating:
Summary: Very good
Review: I enjoy all the beat writers. This particular one holds a fondness to me because I have a secret desire to travel the world unecumbered. A much different time - a much different world.
Rating:
Summary: Matt Dillon is a Genius
Review: Absolutely excellent.....Yes, Yes, Yes.
Rating:
Summary: A fun and easy read!
Review: I'd just like to say that ON THE ROAD is an incredibly easy book to read -- at least, for me. I just finished it, and no matter how burnt out I was after work, how tired, I was always able to pick it up and enjoy it. This may be just a matter of style, I don't know. But for a purported "20th century classic," it was the most fun I've had reading a book -- any book -- in a while. The novel also seemed to contain an endless share of vicarious, life-affirming thrills. This book reminded me of why I used to love to travel, see new things, experience life -- damn, it's fun! I recommend this book to anyone; it truly is an exhilarating novel, and in reading it, you'll fall into a dream, a fantasy of freedom and the open road. Try it! Along with ON THE ROAD, I'd like to recommend THE LOSERS' CLUB by Richard Perez, another novel that re-kindled fond memories of my youth! (Jeez, I'm only 31 -- what happened?!)
Rating:
Summary: the true road book
Review: many have tried but no one has accomplished what jack kerouac did in on the road. i originally read this the 1st time 30 years ago when i was in my early 20's. since that reading i have read dharma bums and desolation angels by kerouac. i also read electric kool aid acid test which gives a 60's history of neal cassady the hero of on the road. knowing what happens after these road trips gives the reader much more insight into the relationship between the two main characters than a simple reading does. the book has numerous forebodings of the eventual split and the reasons why. the real road warrior here is sal paradise(jack kerouac). he is the one who initiates many of the cross country treks. dean moriarity (cassady) is a unique character upon which the story is built. when you know where he goes in the later years of his life after on the road you have a better understanding of him. he is the true "beat" who evolves into to the true "hippi" of the 60's. to one who has grown up in the 60's, this book is the dream. many have tried to hit the road. some have succeeded, most have not. it is a life that although still possible, is much less probable. life is just too dangerous out there these days. i highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand the beat movement and appreciate how it transitioned into the hippi movement of the 60's. the book has the sound, pace, and fever of the generation. it is the beginning of the search that continued thru the 60's that never found what it was looking for.
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Summary: madness in words
Review: I truly enjoyed this book, because it really opened my eyes to the "Beat" culture, and I really liked Kerouac's writing style as well. My only complaint is that at times, Sal Paradise (the narrator) started rambling and skipping his thoughts, which incredibly confused me. However, I have to admit that this technique was part of the appeal, and pretty soon I felt as if I were caught in a strange man's musings and this was incredibly attractive to me. The way Kerouac writes about "bop" is also amazing, and sometimes I had to linger over passages, because the words he used to describe the playing of that music were gorgeous, and it was a ride of insane/coherent rambling punctuated with lyrical yet concise descriptions. It was simply put, amazing. I still cannot recall, for the life of me, the names of the many characters Sal met over his various trips. Some were used for a few chapters, and some made their reappearances later on, but in a way, this does not matter too much, because this is a story about Sal Paradise and his friend Dean. I definitely recommend this book, because the book is an interesting read even if you end up not liking it.
Rating: 
Summary: Overrated and overhyped
Review: After reading this book twice, I still have no clue as to why it is still being hailed as the "beatnik" generation bible. I mean, puh-leaze..... if I want to read about a bunch of idiotic, hormonal men driving around in a primitive attempt to get laid, I'll just stop by the fraternity house. This is proof that men who dream of getting laid read about other men who dream about getting laid, and then praise them for being so gosh darn smart. What a waste of money... it does however make good toilet paper.
Rating:
Summary: Hey Man, its the prose
Review: Take away the story behind the book, take away the cult of personality, take away the romantic notions about "Beat", and take away the cool. What you got left is not a lot. This book does not stand as a work of literature without the mythology surrounding it and its author. We are told this is great revolutionary important because it was written spontaneously (on a scroll, wow). I do not care whether a writer composes in his sleep, on the toilet, on drugs, in one day, or over 20 years. Just is it any good? I was bored silly by this novel. It is exactly what one would think it is: a chronicle of a road trip back and forth across the country. In 1940s this might have been a new and exciting thing to do but practically everyone nowadays does this nowadays within a year of getting their drivers license. There is no structure to the book and there is nothing in the prose anyone could not write given the same experiences. The road trip experiences themselves are not very interesting or unique, even for the time, and the characters are infatuated with themselves.
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