Rating: 
Summary: On the beat.
Review: I can't remember where I read this (I think King's Hearts in Atlantis) but there are basically two types of books. There are books that tell a great story, and there are books that make any story seem great due to the quality of the author. There are even some rare books that accomplish both. Unfortunatly On the Road seems to fall into the category of a great story that just lacks the literary delivery to induct it into the American literary cannon. Any young person with the whole world ahead of them who dreams of spontaneously roaming about the country will find great inspirational material in this book. I know I certainly did. It follows Sal Paradise (essentially Kerouac) on several whirlwind tours of the country. The narrator's prose seems to mirror the transient and temporal haunts of his posse, as descriptions are spares and the narrative is as full of introspectives as descriptions. Now this is what gives On the Road sucha beatish aura, but I would at least like some sort of frame of reference for the situations Sal finds himself in besides a bar or speeding car or early morning basement. This is a book that bolstered and nursed my ideas and inspirations for the future, but it could've done much more if it were written a little more elegently.
Rating:
Summary: Not Kerouacs best.
Review: The book "on the road" deserves it's place as a classic due to the sheer context of the book and the development throughout. Although this book is very good and always a great book to read i prefer the other Jack Kerouac books.
Rating: 
Summary: It will give you wanderlust
Review: Ever know someone who could just get up and leave where they were living and not come back for months at a time? Neither have I. But this is the tale of several such individuals. One of the greatest stories ever told. When you read this, it's really striking in what ways our nation has and has not changed in the last fifty or so years.
Rating: 
Summary: disappointing
Review: This book was recommended to me by like 9 zillion people, so I was all excited to read it. But then when I did, I was disappointed to find a scarcity of what I consider to be actual content. The author chaoticly and fragmentarily describes whatever is in his environment that catches his attention but fails to provide meaningful interpretation and analysis of these things. However, there are some comments scattered sparsely throughout the book that are interesting or possibly even profound in a simplistic isolated way. The whole thematic purpose of this book seems to be "everything is pointless, but let's go really experience time by roaming through populations and paying some intense but ignorant attention to what we encounter." The book also contains an irritating devaluation of women. The main characters constantly search for their ideal woman, which seems to be a beautiful and complacent bimbo who has no personality or thoughts of her own that could possibly have any meaningful or important contribution to anything.
Rating:
Summary: On The Road
Review: The book, On The Road by Jack Kerouac, is a brilliant story and a classic that is a very enjoyable book to read. The story is about Dean and Sal (the main characters in the book) and the experiences they have together when they travel across the United States in the late 1940's. They meet a lot of people and experience a lot of great times. Dean is a very enjoyable character because he is very spontaneous and crazy. The reader has no idea what Dean will do next in the story. Sal is a more relaxed character, but he wants to follow in Dean's footsteps as much as he can.
Kerouac uses many literary elements in this story, that is why the book is a well-known classic. The theme of the story is very original. There is not a big conflict or climax because it is a story about friendship, and the great experiences people can have together. The style of Kerouac's writing is also very original. When he begins a new chapter in the book, the first setting is completely different from how the last chapter ended. This also portrays his use of foreshadowing throughout the book. The reader does not know what is going to happen next because the plot jumps around a lot. I like this style of writing because it keeps me very interested in the book.
This book has had a lot of mixed reviews, but I thought it was an excellent piece of writing. A lot of people argue that the plot is very weak, but I thought that the plot was the element that made the story very original. The plot is different because the theme is different. There is not a large climax or conflict because the story is based off of friendship. There are not a lot of books like this, that is why I think it is a classic. I would recommend this book for ages seventeen and above. I think it is a more difficult read because of Kerouac's style, but a great read if you can get into the book.
Rating:
Summary: Glad I Finally Made It!
Review: There are many books which I haven't yet read--in fact, have actively avoided--only because too many people have told me that I simply must read it ASAP. _On the Road_ has got to be at the top of the list of books for which I have received such recommendations, and thus, already now 32 years old, I have just read it for the first time. But I am glad I finally got around to it, and in fact I am even glad I waited until I could bring (hopefully) a more mature appreciation to it. OTR is NOT, as I feared, just a travelogue of idiocy and debauchery, although it does indeed have its share, but in an essential and endearing way. It is, among many other things, a story of post-depression era, post-war/pre-war, technological awareness and geographical awakening. The language is delicious, filled with "jalopy" (both a noun and an adjective!)--a word I had only ever seen before in Hardy Boys books--and, of course, "dig." The characters are numerous, but never superfluous or superficial, always colorful and sincere (and of course based on other famous writers/thinkers). The scenes are unforgettable, and the driven pace, mesmerizing. To say this book "holds up" is to understate and underestimate its influence, not only on writers of the 60's, but until this day, and its style stills seems fresh and its message relevant. But you probably won't listen to me anyway. Or you will, and you'll resist just because of my enthusiasm. Good for you! You'll get to it someday.
Rating:
Summary: Balling The Jack
Review: I tried reading On The Road a few years ago and, for whatever reason, could not get involved in the story...and put it down. This time around was far more successful. In reading other reviews, it seems everyone has an opinion on the 'quality' of the book, or the 'Beat Generation' and how this novel revolutionized (or didn't) literature at the time, and people's attitudes toward the younger generation. But what I find lacking is a review of the two main characters themselves, as all characters in the book were only 'fictionalizations' of real persons in Kerouac's life, amalgamations of qualities, actions, and characteristics of Kerouac and his friends. So, that is the spin I will put on my review of On The Road; what I saw in the journey of the two main characters themselves. Sal Paradise, aspiring writer, continually hits the open road with a host of characters, most notably Dean Moriarty. Thirsting for life, and experience, and excitement, they cross the United States several times, with a few marriage and child stopovers for Dean along the way. But Sal and Dean, while thick as thieves, are starkly contrasting characters in terms of the development they achieve throughout their journeys. In these two characters you find one man who comes to realize at the end of his quest that everything he wanted was right where he started, much the same as Dorothy stated in the Wizard of Oz...you don't need to look any further than your own backyard. But Dean, Sal's frequent travel companion, proves that you can't find what you're looking for if you have no notion of what that is. Sal's hero-worship of Dean and the free-wheeling, risk taking, no-holds-barred life he leads eventually gives way to common sense and maturation. Sal follows Dean's lead numerous times, which takes him to San Francisco, Denver, Mexico, and many places in between. Along the way a very colorful host of characters is encountered. Kerouac shows a highly skilled manner of description with people, places, and experiences. The story alternates between comical and somber, but never runs out of fuel. Other reviewers have criticized the ending of the novel as being too serious in tone, which I find an unfair assessment. If the book as a whole is taken as one long journey for the protagonist; starting with a spur-of-the-moment decision to travel across the country to 'see some friends' or 'just because your friends did it' then a maturation at the end, a sense of taking life a little more seriously and deciding what you want from life and where you want to be is a logical conclusion. But in between these two points, the story flows seamlessly, much like Kerouac's purported method of writing it, by taping rolls of typing paper together to keep writing in a continuous stream of consciousness. Kerouac's travel experiences in the 40's make for wonderful reading fare, and I was never disappointed or bored. As an escape from the mundane, every-day-the-same kind of life most adults lead...it cannot be beat.
Rating: 
Summary: ... this [was bad]
Review: I just finished reading this book as an assignment for a college history final. After page 150 I was really going nuts reading it. 20 pages into it the book just starts on a broken record repetition of the same thing. Kerouacs writing style is totally unimaginative and dull. The characters are highly detailed, but all the same, none show any initiative to accomplish anything in life other than "making it" with ever girl in sight. Drinking and uncured marijuana also play a heavy hand in the books story line, I was so enthused about just getting to the end so I could take my ... test. If this was the life of a beat or hippie, god save their souls.
Rating:
Summary: One Hell of a Road Trip
Review: This is the second Kerouac book I have read so far (my first being the lovely Tristessa), and I was equally and more so impressed with On The Road. It is the story of Sal Paradise's journey all over the great United States and his journey through maturity. In the text we meet iconic characters such as Dean Moriarty and his girl, Mary Lou. This book is an excellent introduction to Kerouac, and to Beat literature overall. Highly reccommended.
Rating:
Summary: A road less traveled by
Review: Wow, That is the first word that came to mind when i shut this book. I found it amazing how ths revolutionary beat writer could relate to my life so well. Im hardly a beatnik a 15 year old, hell most people my age don' know the meaning of beatnik. I found this book compleatly captivating. The visuals were amazing, how could you not feel the wind in your hair and sal and dean zipped across the face of the changing country that was the U.s at this time. Jack Kerouac makes me long for the simpler times, the better times. The times I feel sometimes I should have been born in. Top notch work i recomend it highly.
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