On The Road

Rating:
Summary: A classic
Review: Not a novel with any particular plot. This is a memoir not a novel. If you're interested in the time period and the life of Jack Kerouac this is a interesting book. The characters I found interesting although they really don't do anything, but travel around having various encounters on the road. A classic in literature.

Rating:
Summary: - take your money elsewhere
Review: Ok, I heard all the hype about On the Road, mostly from reading Jim Morrison biographies and such during my teens, so when I was in college in '91 and hanging out at my favorite spot, the Broward County Library, I decided to look it up. And you know what? I thought it was the single most over-rated piece of garbage I'd ever read. I couldn't even finish it and believe me, I tried several times. I thought from previous reviews that I'd find a kindred spirit in Dean Moriarty, but he simply grew more and more pathetic as the book wore on. Kerouac sure made a statement with this book - too bad the statement was "I'm an insipid bore."

Rating:
Summary: wait, when was this written?
Review: I read the first chapter of this book with a broad grin on my face the whole time. Finally, someone seemed to understand and admit that they had the same spaztic need to discover and experience as anybody growing up in America anywhere must. It was easy to forget what time the book was written in, it seemed so very contemporary, so easily suited to my life today. The book proved to me that every generation is a lost generation, a beat generation, and that nearly all young people become exasperated as they learn that there should be more to life, but there just might not be.

Rating:
Summary: A book that'll change your life
Review: "On the Road" may not be the greatest literary achievement of all time, but it certainly is the most powerful. The beats were a group of intellects as much into experiencing life as absorbing it through literature and shared ponderings. "On the Road", like a whirlwind, does not allow the reader to sit idly, witnessing the manic, life affirming adventures of its characters. Kerouac demands the reader find a way to do it himself--revaluating all that is routine and prosaic in life and doing something about it while gawd there's still time. One cannot read any page of this book without desiring to leave the house and celebrate the great joys life offers for each of us, not too far down the road.

Rating:
Summary: A series of random thoughts is not literature
Review: On The Road may just be the most overrated book of all time. Venture most of the raves found on this page and elsewhere are by those who liked it because they were supposed to like it.

Rating:
Summary: the hook is set
Review: *sigh* so many biased reviews so little time...

this book is "great" regardless of the opinions of those who seek to deify it and those who wish to trash it. "Great" is in quotes the same way television or gunpowder are great. It changed lives, and produced a paradigm shift in writing. It is -not- J.K.'s best work. See "Mexico City Blues" or "Visions of Cody" for that title, however, it did break thru the boring dull linearity of writing of the time, as did many other greats such as Faulkner, or Hemingway. It captures the excitement of his travels, translates the personal experience to shared experience, however the if excitement wears off on the reader is subjective, however the consequences of this book are great (no quotes).

Rating:
Summary: A life-changer
Review: This book is far too meaningful too sum up. Not understanding Kerouac goes beyond uncoolness, (though that's part of it). To understand Kerouac is to make no apologies. Kerouac asks nothing, presents nothing, and states nothing. He simply exhibits that all-important trait that so many writers search for: truth.

Rating:
Summary: Amazing book, fun way to look at life
Review: Thoughts that went through my mind when I read this: zest for life, so many interesting personalities+places out there, "all i wanted to do was find out what everybody was doing all over the country.", breaking rules, doing random stuff, telling stories, being impulsive. This book is a lot of fun. Although it does have some depressing parts, it is a classic.

Rating:
Summary: jack is the back of the x-gen
Review: After reading On The Road i thought to myself "what a way to relate your surroundings and your feelings." i continued to pick up more of his writings. " Darma Bums" Book of Blues" The Town and The City." With each new book came more and more feelings of my travels and interactions with people and places I have been and enjoyed. I honestly believe as a 25 year old male that Jack was looking at everything from a real, but obviously blurred reality. Then I look at myself and say "thats my reality." Blurred. Not of choice, partly of my own doing. Continuing what past generations were doing but in different ways. Some of the people and personalities seem to strike a part of my realistic expieriences. I just want to say, that Jack is definately right when he says, that he doesnt understand why people are people.

Rating:
Summary: The Master of Prose wrote a Great book
Review: Jack Kerouac wrote this book more than 50 years before i was born, but it still holds a timelessness that the reader can relate to. The book is a recollection of the author's lonly and exciting journey across the post WWII America, looking for life, excitement, and the answer to the question we are all looking for, but can't be found. I feel this is a must have for any reader who yearns for the freedom of the open road.