On The Road

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Summary: We don't know Jack -- just glimpes of his brilliance
Review: Perhaps I am too old now to read this book. Perhaps. Yet, youth still lingers in the mists of my mind.

I faintly remember what it was like to smack into life's walls full force hoping they would give way.

The walls gave way for Jack. His youthful brilliance still shines. We can but glimpse it in this novel which chronicles the start of his american dream.

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Summary: Amazing Passages In This Book
Review: If you don't have this then you need to get it. Period. Genius multiplied several times.

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Summary: Not Just a Kid's Book!
Review: It annoys me when people refer to ON THE ROAD as juvenile, or a "young adult" book. It most definitely is not. This novel merits a serious reading -- and a re-reading. In fact, I find myself reading it atleast once every few years and each time the writing yields new and exciting things. Truly this is some kind of Bible for me, a book that I can dip into for inspiration when life's dreariness becomes too much for me; Kerouac's clarity and lyricism and joy should never to be confused with the impulsiveness and naivete of "youth." I know plenty of young people who have no enthusiasm for life and freedom as Kerouac depicts it. In fact, the book is a re-discovery of the world and the will to live. As the novel begins: "I first met Dean not long after my wife and I split up. I had just gotten over a serious illness that I won't bother to talk about, except that it had something to do with the miserably weary split-up and my feeling that everything was dead." This is great novel for ALL ages. And I know it will be a great comfort to me in my old age as it was in my youth! Special thanks to the reviewer who also recommended THE LOSERS CLUB by Richard Perez.


Rating:
Summary: Wish I could give higher praise
Review: As a disclaimer: my feels after having finished this book might be somewhat tainted by the manner which I read it - lots of starting and stopping. I knew that I wanted to read this book if for no other reason than because of its `classic' status but I always became restless with this book and moved onto other books before forcing myself to come back to this one. While I don't think this is entirely a result of that on again off again reading experience my feeling of On the Road as somewhat of a disjointed meandering work no doubt was influenced by that somewhat.

I am left feeing about Kerouac much the same way I feel about Ernest Hemingway - I don't really feel overly impressed by either of them but I feel like I should be. Maybe it is just that its value as a `revolutionary' work is lost on me as I am so far removed from its original impact. Feel like this book might be interesting to return to in a few years as reading it for a second time and reading it while at a different place in my life might bright out different feels about the book but as for right now I wasn't overly moved.

Regardless, I can say that I would infinitely recommend this book over my other recent foray into the `modern classics' Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

Rating:
Summary: Either you get it, or you don't
Review: This book has no middle ground. To the dreamer, mystic, and romantic, this book will speak to you in a unique and unforgettable way, and will skyrocket to your favorites list. To the gray suit, the pragmatis, and classicist, this book will leave you scratching your head, saying, 'what's the big deal?' To me, this book represents endless possibility, of not knowing what the day will bring, but not sitting around to wait for whatever to happen. Along the way, it's the people you meet and the stories you'll tell that will let you discover whether you have lived life, or just wasted it away.

Rating:
Summary: BORING!!!
Review: This is not what I thought it would be. I mean people rave about this book. Maybe it would be a big deal in the 50's (although I dont see it raising too many eyebrows even back then.) I just dont see it. It's the same thing over and over. "Lets move on cause I'm restless. Let's find a ride and get to the other side of the U.S. for awhile. Lets do drugs and get drunk. OK now I'm bored here, lets go back." There, now you dont have to read it. I've just given it all to you.

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Summary: I've got to agree with a few of the reviewers....
Review: I just dont see what the big deal about this one is. It is incredibly boring. I wanted to like it too. I tried to like it. But a "lets hitch-hike around the U.S., get drunk, etc." book just didnt end up doing it for me. And thats all this book really is. Back and forth across the U.S., same parties and stories over and over. I forced myself to get 2/3's of the way through before I gave up. There was nothing new in this book even when it was first published. Everyone knew about lovable losers and drifters and had for decades before this book was written. If you want a real counter culture page turner; there is only one -- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Now there is a real book. If you are intent on reading both, make sure you read On the Road first, or you will REALLY be disappointed after reading Fear and Loathing.

Rating:
Summary: An Expansion of Consciousness
Review:
In the errant, glowing review for the New York Times when it was first published, On The Road garnered comparisons with The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway, and with good reason -- it chronicled a "lost generation" eager to grasp at life (WWI for Hemingway's book, WWII for Kerouac's book) and expressed it in a whole new fresh way. Both books are quite lively, full of explosive description and off-the-cuff dialogue that renders the experience in a quasi-documentary-style way: that is, both books PUT YOU THERE, in the moment.

While Hemingway went on to spectacular success, embraced by Academia (but not always by the critics), Kerouac's trajectory was a lot darker. Critics (even the New York Times published a "retraction" of that initial glowing review one week later and now referred to him as a "Neanderthal with a typewriter") and Academics went out of their way to bash his spontaneously bop prosody style. No matter. Although it was shame that Kerouac (as most artists) needed to be crucified in the media, his books, his accomplishments remain. And this book, On The Road, certainly stands as one of his greatest achievements, being an expression of a cry for freedom and nonconformity -- as well as a reinvention of literary style. Possibly this would've be published as "memoir" if it appeared today. Regardless, Kerouac is a jazz poet of the highest order, his spontaneity and agility of style famously influenced by the freewheeling freedom of jazz. The descriptive passages in this book of jazz music, alone, are worth the price of this book. ( See that passage of Sal and Dean discussing the ephemeral "it," and you'll have some idea.) Even the structure of the novel is original. What can I say, this is a unique and marvelous reading experience, an explosion and heart and vigor and youth -- one experience that should not be missed! Two other quick recommendations are the Subterraneans by Kerouac and The Losers Club by Richard Perez. Enjoy these books and taste life!