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Summary: An exhilirating guide to an alternative way of life.
Review: Kerouac wrote this book, detailing his experiences with Neal Cassady driving across the country between 1947 and 1950, with what he called "spontaineous prose," analagous to sketching a scene with words. This led to a very fast-paced, exhilirating narrative describing everything that happened to them. The book inspired his generation to go out and experience the world for themselves, and still has that effect today. I can't believe some on this site actually called the book boring or pointless. It is as far from both as a book can get. The novel is a guide to life, and how to get the most enjoyment out of it. At this it excels. Although I certainly wouldn't recommend some of the things Kerouac did in this book (heavy drinking, smoking marijuanna or "tea" as he called it, and patronizing a Mexican whore house), "On the Road" is an amazing window into that lifestyle and is certain to open up inside you a new way of looking at the wrold.
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Summary: This is a book you love or hate- but it is still important
Review: Kerouac's "On the Road" is a just really good book. Although I'm not a big fan of his other books (excluding "The Dharma Bums", which is his best book), I think the impact of this book on American culture (and/or subculture) is undeniable. It introduced a more mainstream group of readers to the free-form, "Beat" style of writing while still being readable- which is more than can be said of William S. Burroughs or, for that matter, most of Kerouac's other novels. It fueled the Beat movement and also the hippie movement of the 1960s. There are some minor faults with the book, but nothing to make it unreadable. Jack Kerouac was THE Beat prose writer as Allen Ginsberg was THE Beat poet. It is an important American novel, and it cannot be compared with such books as Stephen King or Ann Rice novels. It has more depth and is written with more feeling. Most of what Kerouac wrote actually happened. "On the Road" is truly the Beat masterpiece, along with Ginsberg's "Howl."
Rating: 
Summary: VERY OVERRATED
Review: "On the Road" is a good title because that is all that happens in this book. The characters are going here or going there, and very little happens in between. If anything, I was left with the depressed feeling that during their cross-country trips, absolutely nobody seemed to care for or love these characters. They seem totally on their own.
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Summary: -More than a book-
Review: Many of you may not know it but Karouac is already in your head. "On the Road" is the true measure of greatness. This book will live on after most of us are dead.
Rating:
Summary: This is the best book i ever read
Review: Jack Kerouac is a very gifted writer. I have never read a book that could actually make you feel like you were right there. And it also shows that who you choose for your friends may no be the best ones and even if your there for them they might not always be there for you. It was an altogether excellent book though.
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Summary: A prerequisite for life
Review: If anything ever sent my life into a different direction, it's this book. It is an inspiration and a companion. Dizzy, soulful, poetic, and more dimensional than anyone has ever managed before and since. Read this book before it's too late......
Rating: 
Summary: You'll dig it if you're beat
Review: Fact-based account of post-war, rebellious intellectuals who embrace poverty and aimlessness in a kinetic quest for drugs, alcohol, sex, jazz, and existential insight. Kerouac was on an extended benzedrine binge for the first draft of this book, and the prose is sometimes disjointed, but the enthusiastic, poetic idealizations of his vagabond experiences make the trip worthwhile.One is reminded of Cannery Row in observing the characters' dreamy intentions and the comically alcoholic results, except that Steinbeck was aware of his characters' absurdity while Kerouac takes himself and his drug-addled companions way too seriously. Kerouac unintentionally mocks the real life poverty of those he encounters on the road by the fact he is supported by the GI Bill and his mommy (oh, excuse me, his "aunt"). Before you decide to imitate Kerouac, be sure you've got a generous "aunt", and be advised that in real life the gone cat burned out his liver and died at 47. Yes, yes, yes, yes, uh, oops.
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Summary: dean is the all-american hero
Review: If one can understand all the impact this book had on American culture, then you would rate this book very well good...
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Summary: The greatest account of a lost generaton
Review: On the Road. The greatest mind expanding book ever. Learn all about the wonderful feeling of being a beat. Riding across the country with the wind at your back. But also, this book is a classic of American Literature. It paved the way for a new method of writing, Spontaeous Bop Prosody. READ THIS BOOK!
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Summary: I just didn't like it...
Review: This book is pointless. Perhaps that's the point; these characters live life and enjoy themselves etc... but this is not what I look for in a novel. If I want stream of consciousness and imagery without something else I'll go outside and experience it on my own. Perhaps I just can't ascribe to the beat philosophy or something, but this book reminded me of road trips to visit relatives 500 miles away - boring. Check that - at least with the road trips I could count Volkswagen Bugs and grazing cows.
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