Rating: 
Summary: What's all the hoopla about?
Review: I visited some of the beat scenes in this book and of the period in San Francisco. The interest level on scale of one to ten I give it a 4. I should have stopped there. I did this because I read an article about the BEAT Generation and Kerouac, Ginsberg etc. Then I read this book. I find it to be medium on style, short on substance. What do we care about people who sit on crates, drink, wear pants slung low. I think we are supposed to be Dean Moriarty--pretending things are interesting when they really are not. The only good reads were when Sal (Kerouac) says things like "life is precious", .."people that burn burn like fabulous roman candles" etc. Unfortunately, there are not enough of these. I would wait for the movie, reading the book is an effort. Hopefully, they will punch up the movie. I was disappointed in this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Great fictionalized memoir straight from Kerouac's life
Review: On the Road by Jack Kerouac, is a very interesting book that at first may seem like incessant blabbering, but later ties many themes and feelings together within the mind of the reader. It is a fictionalized account of Kerouac's life, as he quit college to become a merchant marine and from then went wandering around the country with the now famous beatnik Neal Cassady. Kerouac's character's name in the book is Sal Paradise, Cassady, Dean Moriarity. The story seems a bit jumpy in the beginning, as Sal and Dean and other characters always seem to be going from one place to another, but later it all ties together. Kerouac relates every experience he has on the road to either another road trip he took or his home in new york, until the road actually becomes his home. The book does a great job describing the way of life of the locals in each town, therefore giving the reader an overall sense of the american landscape of the late forties and early fifties. An example of this is in chapter four when he is talking about a few men he hitched a ride with: "The greatest ride in my life was about to come up, a truck, with about six or seven boys sprawled out on it, and the drivers, two young blond farmers from Minnesota, were picking up every single soul they found on that road--the most smiling, cheerful couple of handsome bumpkins you could ever wish to see, both wearing cotton shirts and overalls, nothing else;both thick-wristed and earnest, with broad howareyou smiles for anything that came across their path." The book is also more than just the american landscape, it is about the joys and pains of being completely free. In the book, Sal Paradise doesn't say that he is sad or happy or angry, as Kerouac is the ultimate king of showing and not telling. He shows feelings through the actions of the characters and how they interact with the world around them. The book also has a distinct rhythm about it, it sort of drums along to the beat of a jazz tune with the rhythm and pacing and syntax and also uses a variety of onomatopoeias such as this one from page 190 describing the sound coming out of a jazz player's trumpet: "He'd go from 'ta-tup-tader-rara...ta-tup-tader-rara,' repeating and hopping to it and kissing and smiling into his horn, to 'ta-tup-EE-da-de-dera-RUP!ta-tup-EE-da-dera-RUP!' and it was all great moments of laughing and understanding for him and everyone else who heard." These techniques along with unique description throughout the rest of the book makes it hard for the reader not to relate this book to their own life experiences
Rating:
Summary: One of the best novels of the 20th Century? C'mon.
Review: I was interested in reading Jack Kerouac's "On the Road," his record of the "Beat Generation," after seeing it at #55 on the Modern Library's Best 100 English Language novels of the Twentieth Century. After finishing the book, I'm left scratching my head in dissatisfied wonder.Kerouac narrates under the pseudonym of Sal Paradise, as a writer whose career is underway. He meets a character named Dean Moriarty, a bad seed who aspires to be a writer and admires Paradise's work. The two of them crisscross the country with various friends and girlfriends looking for life experiences which turn out to be pretty mundane after all. That's it. That's all the book is about. What frustrated me about the book is not that Paradise and Moriarty are unappealing characters (they think it's okay to cheat on girlfriends, abandon wives and children, and pilfer food and gas from modest small-town storekeepers), but rather that Kerouac is such a bland writer with little to no penchant for description. The people and places he writes about are potentially fascinating, but Kerouac attacks his material with all the insight and depth of a fourth grader writing his "What I Did During My Summer Vacation" report. His descriptions of Hollywood, San Francisco, Mexico, the jazz clubs, etc., etc., places of intrigue and passion, are so stoic they defy belief. "Beat" seems to be an adjective Kerouac used as a synonym for tired or worn-down, which I suppose he meant to refer to his generation. His generation surely deserves a better representation than this.
Rating:
Summary: Kerouac is the Man
Review: "Kerouac is the man" is a phrase I heard after reading "On the Road" for the first time, incidently from the same person who had recommended that I read it. I too discovered that, Kerouac is indeed "the man." To me, "On the Road" is a stroke of pure genious, presenting a way of life that I never thought could exsist. Kerouac shows all of life's beauties and depressions, with such zest and wonder that I felt truly inspired. Although "On the Road" lacks a traditional plot line, I never felt the need for one once I got used to Kerouac's almost poetic style. During the first chapter, I kept thinking that this book wasn't about anything, and that I would never be able to finish it. Then I realized, that it is not what the characters were doing that was so important to the story, but the character's emotions and the ideas presented that mattered. While watching Sal Paradise bum around America with Dean Moriarty, the reader gets caught up in how wonderful it is to be alive. Because of "On The Road," I have seen so many things in a different light, and noticed things I used to take for granted. I have begun to find joy in different places and no longer search and strive for perfection. I'm not saything that because of this book my life turned 180 degrees, it didn't, but my eyes are now open to ideas that I had never before thought about. Because of this wonderful new perspective, I truly believe that "Kerouac is the man."
Rating:
Summary: Godly
Review: Oh man, what can I say? First off, Ignore all those morons and ignorant people who did not understand this book and rated it terribly. Ignore them!! If you are willing to UNDERSTAND Kerouac, and get into this book... I mean get INTO this book, then you will absolutely love it. It will put a sense of freedom in you. This book is written purely about LIFE! The enjoyment of life itself and freedom... vast freedom. This is easily one of the best books I've ever read. Dont let the bad reviews push you away from it! You will have missed out on something great...
Rating: 
Summary: immensely stupid
Review: It is impossible to imagine why any reader would enjoy this book unless they too long for Neal Cassady to tickle their prostate. This wretched exercise in homoerotic mythopoetics is almost exclusively based on Kerouac's infatuation with Cassady, a by-all-accounts beautiful young man who was, meanwhile, little more than a bisexual, car-stealing, alcoholic, drug-addled punk. Towards the end of the book, as Kerouac lies ill in Mexico and Cassady, quickie divorce from his wife in hand, abandons him to head back to New York & marry anew, we can't help feeling that Kerouac's gotten what he deserved. But the epitaph for this "novel" must, inevitably, be Truman Capote's brilliant bon mot, On the Road "isn't writing; it's typing." An immensely stupid and unwarrantedly respected piece of dreck. GRADE: F
Rating:
Summary: One of the most overrated books in American history
Review: If you want a lesson in how to write badly and skim the surface of philosophical issues instead of dealing with them intelligently, then this is the book for you. If you want to read pages and pages of swollen, self-indulgent prose, then this will quickly become your favorite book. Honestly, reading this was one of the bigger literary disappointments of my life. I had heard so much mouth-frothing enthusiasm about what a great writer Kerouac was that I was unprepared for the sheer badness of his writing, the lack of any well-developed characters, the astounding quantity of superficial angst, the nebulous musings on death and the cosmos, the frivolity of almost every insight the man tries to put into the book. It came as no surprise to me that Kerouac wrote it at a stretch, without editing, in less than a month. This, my dear hipster friends, is not the recipe for a great, or even a good book. I agree that the style was interesting for its era, but the time has come to stop praising bad work. Don't love this book just because it seems like the cool thing to do. Read it if you want - but if you look at it objectively, you'll see that it's mostly shallow and not especially rewarding.
Rating:
Summary: Splendid!
Review: This book is definitely the one! There is a constant change landscapes, climate, characters and color writing. The writing itself is an accomplishment in its own. The book centers around two main characters: Dean Moriarty and Sal Paradise. Sal is a young writer and is part of a group of intellectuals. Dean is comes straight out of jail and to New York City. The two meet and before you know it they are best of friends and start their journeys. Sal travels to the west, stops in Denver, and then proceeds to go further west. Their whole journey is chocked full with bus rides, hitchhiking, and adventures. They meet up once again in the east and head for the west again, stopping in New Orleans and then heading into San Fransisco. They make a series of more trips including Dean settling in New York and Sal going to Denver. But once again they meet up and head south, to Mexico City. Dean is somewhat of a lover. He loves women and loves sex. In simple he can be referred to as a womanizer. Sal had a hard life before Dean, but after he gained confidence, happiness, and a joy for life. Dean represents the western image and that does indeed attract Sal to him. For a long time Sal thinks of the east as a highly populated metropolis of boring people. He tended to refer to the west as wild and untamed with a variety of people who enjoyed life. Sal also has great nationalistic pride and is very happy with his nation. But what he regrets is that there is too much change going on. On this same track Dean is sort of a failure but comes across to Sal as his "idol." I would recommend this book to anyone who is willing to take an adventure into music and American history. It is a call from the streets and a brilliant novel.
Rating:
Summary: Everyone should try and read this book
Review: This was the first Kerouac I have ever read, and I was not dissapointed. Reading this book was like having a conversation with a part of myself I never knew existed. Or at least one I had never been formally introduced to. I never experienced the highs and lows I have with other great books, but that's not what this book was about. It became constant in my life, with me reading a few pages here and there. In fact, I had started to question how far it had pulled me in, being that I normally devour a good book. It wasn't until I finished that I realized how big a part of my life the book had become. After reading the last page, I literally looked around, as if to say, "Now what?" I'm left seriously questioning what this book meant in my life, and where to go from here. I highly recommend that anybody read this book, to see where this view of life fits into your own.
Rating: 
Summary: my review oh boy
Review: I decided to read Jack Kerouac's On the Road because a lot of my friends had read, it as well as some of his other books, and told me that I might enjoy it. The very beginning of the novel didn't grab my attention right away, but soon the pace picked up. The narrator, Sal Paradise (who Kerouac characterized after himself), seems like a simple kind of guy who likes to be with friends, have a good time, and be adventurous. It seems like he and his buddies are drinking at least every few pages, whether it be on the road with hitchhikers or while listening to jazz at a club. During the first half of the book, when Sal first begins his travels across the U.S. to meet up with his friend Dean, the novel has a free-spirited, optimistic tone. He hitchhikes with little money to get from place to place, and as he does so he meets many interesting people and makes some friends. Sal seems excited and open to anything that may come his way. During the second part of the book, after Sal has finally met up with Dean and has a love affair with a Mexican woman in the meantime, the pace of the book slows way down. It becomes difficult to know in which direction the story is leading because not much is taking place for a while. Sal goes back home for a little while, but is soon on the road again with Dean and other friends when they unexpectedly show up at his door to pick him up. He travels to San Francisco a second time, this time not alone, and spends his time drinking and looking for work. He doesn't seem as optimistic and excited as the first time he went travelling, but rather depressed. The story becomes more interesting again when Sal and Dean leave the U.S. and go to Mexico. Here they party more than usual and have as good a time as possible. I liked this part of the novel as well as the beginning because it almost made me feel like I was there, partying with them. Reading On the Road gave me a good sense of what it would be like to escape for a little while and just have an adventure, without feeling like I would have to worry about all the little things. Because I am the kind of person that thinks and worries way too much, it's nice to experience what it would be like to be more laid back and adventurous through reading this book. After reading this I have a sense of what it's like to be left with only yourself to depend on.
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