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Summary: a bible for life on "On the Road"
Review: 'The Beat Generation'...Perhaps the forgotten generation, left the in shadow of the 60's. These are the rebles with out a cause. Never have I read a book that I felt so close to Jack Kerouac certainly captures the essence, the excitement and the contagiousness of being "On the Road" Step back in time to America before it was so big and bad, travel to Mexico with Sal and Dean and smoke the best joint of your life, discover the first adventures of the people who would one day bring us the ' The Grateful Dead' and "The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test'. The characters you read about in this book are real and have found an off beat cult status in our society. It is set in America, the land of the car at a time when it was still considered safe to drive around late at night,sleep in your car and live life where ever the day seems to go. A time that we can never go back to, when teenagers finally started to break away from the norm, the birth of Rock 'n' Roll....The Beat Generation. Love them.
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Summary: 5 stars is not enough !!!
Review: Ti-Jean, is not an " ordinary " writer, and 5 stars is not enough in any case to qualify this masterpiece and his whole masterpieces it would take all the stars you can see in the clear sky of Frisco by night I guess, or at least all them being represented in the starspangeled flag ( and it's a minimum ) this is The American writer since Jack London, and better, he s been as precious in our secular as an Emile zola, or a Honoré de Balzac were in their time in the French literature... I am now working on turning some of his wrintings into french ( since already made translations exist... ) but this is jus for my pleasure and not to be published anyway and I ve never read a book like this ( Lonesome traveller ) ... Submissions become the property of Amazon.com. I don t see why .... I am the auuthor of this ... message so .... It " ALSO " belong to me : lamalang@club-internet.fr, copyrighy 1999 Lol And ... I DON'T WANT to be classified or called a Rewiewer ... I am a reader there, a writer elsewhere Want to be published someday elsewhere ... I don t like REviews or maybe once at the " Folies Bergères " ...
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Summary: What is the fascination with this book?
Review: I have tried hard, and read several books by Kerouak, but still can not understand anyones fascination with him. In my humblest opinion, he is the worst writer I have ever read. He lacks description and his viniet is nothing but a description of life as a drug attic. i am sad he shot himself without something better to have left behind.
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Summary: Pointless....
Review: Grapes of Wrath meets Fear and Loathing (without the drugs). Dated and pointless.
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Summary: Possibly, a life changing experience
Review: I heard about Kerouac from a line in a Beastie Boys song. I meant to read it, but just never got around to it. Months later, a friend of mine mentioned it to me, and, being on vacation and having nothing to read, i went to the bookstore and bought a copy. After reading it every second that I could steal away, even a family reunion, I read it. There's one part, where he was in Mexico, it was just so amazing, that i nearly broke down into tears. So many ideas were expressed in the book that i had been thinking about, and always looking for new things to think about, it really brought about new ideas. I would highly recomend this book to anyone who has any interest in mind expansion
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Summary: It's the innocence, man.
Review: What makes this book different from other works of Kerouac [which are good in their own right] is the innocence of his passage through America. The first cross country trip he takes is probably one the most beautifully described pure voyages of discovery ever chronicled. It's like the first time you fell in love...or the first time you hear a great song...or the first time you smoked weed...that quality can never be recaptured. What Kerouac does in On The Road is put that feeling into words. Kerouac's later works lose that innocence as, in his personal life and wanderings, he begins to realize he's "been there...done that". That's why this book is the best of Kerouac's books and will always cature the hearts of the young and adventureous.
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Summary: The Emperor Is Nekkid, Daddy-O
Review: Anybody who considers this "the most important book I've read in my life" should be taken outside and strung up by their genitalia for all the world to laugh at. I read it in high school and thought it sucked even then, but I wasn't confident enough to take that stand. Now, after researching a story on "beats" for a New Orleans-based magazine, I tried it again and, boy, is it awful. Ginsburg was a good person and a decent poet. Burroughs (older and not techincally a beat) was by far the most talented of the gang and the only real novalist. But Kerouac?!? C'mon. The guy was a washed up mamma's boy who left a trail of neglected children and ruined lives in his wake, which still ripples on today. Read about his daughter and learn what a great "free spirit" this drunken role-model was to his own broken family. Kerouac said himself in his declining years (what, his mid-30s?) that it was not so much about the writing and the poetry as they were "just some guys who were trying to get laid." Honest and noble enough, but any person who upholds this bloated proto-fratboy as a champion of American Literature is doing our aspiring writers a great disservice. Perhaps Kerouac's greatest achievement was provide a scourge of disaffected white-bred college dropouts and goateed posers with a weak rationalization for their debauched, hedonistic behavior. But here's at tip for aspiring sybarites: you can't be truly hedonistic if you are broke. So go on, get your MBA, make a few mill, then let loose the Dogs of Jack. It's either that, or die like our friend Cassidy did in real life...out in a mexican desert while walking along the tracks at night, freezing and drunk, until finally keeling over like a stray dog and vomiting his last breath into the sand of some foreign land. Hell, at least Burroughs lived into his 80s.
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Summary: Pure Energy
Review: This book is pure energy. There is no other way to describe it. The sections on hitch-hiking, night clubs, and various parties etc. are absolutely enthralling. On the Road describes a lifestyle that is freedom in its purest form. Two people, Sal and Dean, who want nothing out of life except to live it. You can open to almost any page and immediately be caught up in the moment.
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Summary: This book will not be forgotten
Review: I first heard about this book when I discovered it was named one of the greatest novels of the 20th century (It was #96, I believe). After reading a couple of chapters, I instantly realized the reason for its selection: Beautiful descriptions of actual cities and landmarks, vivid details revolving around Sal's feelings and emotions, and one of the greatest characters I've ever read ---> Dean Moriarty. I recommend you join Sal and Dean as they go on one of the most magnificant journeys in literature.
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Summary: It opens your eyes to what was so beautiful and all you can
Review: say is WOW! I remember I just heard Jack Kerouac's name and had to read his works. Some man at the bookmobile noticed I had a few of Kerouac's books and recommended that I read ON THE ROAD first. Well I took his advice and it is now one of my all-time favorite books. It's beautiful,wild, and one hell of a ride. I'd recommend it to anyone.
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