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Summary: ON THE ROAD
Review: no plot, no structure!!!WHAT's THE MAIN THEME!!!!!!? how do you write an essay on this!!! This book is terrible!!!!!
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Summary: Reflection
Review: This book is incredible. I have never read something so chaotic. Jack Kerouac really captured my heart with his writing. While I was reading this book I felt Sal's loneliness, heartaches, depression, love, and his uncontrollable need to discover what's out there. Although I have not traveled much I have always desired the capability to go where I wanted to, when I wanted to. That's exactly what Sal and all of his wonderful friends do. Through all of their crazy adventures I have learned so much. All Sal really wants in life is someone to love him, and a place to call home. Like many of us, Sal goes about attaining his wants in the wrong way. Sal travels all over the U.S. searching for a place to belong, and happiness. Through Sal's travels he met many incredible people. Kerouac did a wonderful job developing all of these characters. There were so many characters, but they were still distinct, each one having some connection to Sal. That's why I love Sal so much, he is willing to talk to anyone. I couldn't put this book down because I had to see what Sal was going to get himself into next. Through all of Sal's adventures I lived a little bit of them with him. I longed for Sal to find himself, just as I long to find my own place in life. If you like adventures you can't go wrong with this book. Just be prepared for an outrageous journey that will leave you breathless.
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Summary: Life-changing book, even now
Review: The book that launched 1,000 road trips. Yeah, what once seemed shocking now seems quaint. Yeah it's sexist by today's standards.
But this book, while not the best writing from a technical perspective, is one of the most inspiring, beautiful books about the joys of life ever. Read it.
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Summary: The Bible of Upper-Middle-Class Trust-fund Lefty-Loonies !
Review: . . .need I say more ? . . .also handy for undercover cops who need to cultivate an image for the crowd they're investigating. . . .Enjoy!
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Summary: American Classic
Review: On the Road, I stumbled upon this book looking for something new to read. I was happy I did. Jack Keroac really did hit on something between the hippies and the "greatest generation," the beat generation. This novel harkens back to a simpler time of crossing the country with other travelers when it was relatively safe to do so. Being someone who always enjoys the road trip, this book resonated with me personally and spiritually. Personally I understand Sal Paradise's need to be on the road free from worry or cares. Harder to understand is the beat-mystic Dean Moriaty. Dean is the tragic hero of the story, who really never becomes heroic, and only ulitmately lets Sal down. I think Dean is identifiable to many because there is always someone who will fail you if you put your trust in them without looking at their character. This book makes you look at many issues, relationships, youth, travel, the universe, being all you can be and much more. It is worth the read no matter what Generation you are from. Is it just me or was the beat generation a lot like Gen X? Food for thought. Joseph Dworak
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Summary: The Bible of the Beat Generation
Review: There's a reason this novel was chosen as the "Bible of the Beat Generation." Written from the point of view of a typical beat kid travelling cross-country with his compatriots, Jack Kerouac sketches out a story in what's known as "stream-of-consciousness." It's not a style that's easy for everyone to understand, but it gives a real feeling to Kerouac's story. I was actually forced to read this book as part of my American History class in college. Unlike the other books I was assigned, this one was much more interesting and gave me more insight into Kerouac's generation than any textbook could have given. While most people may not think it the best book ever written, it's certainly one of the greatest books I've read.
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Summary: A Trip to Take
Review: Jack Kerouvac totally describes a classic trip from the east cosat to the west coast. The freedom of moving from one place to another without boundaries, when the whole point is to follow some dreams and explore on your own what it means to live and take risks. Sal and friends give all their trips everything they can, they hitchhike evrey where, they meet all sorts of people, but at the end that only makes them see more clearly the differences that exist between them... The best way to know someone is to travel with them...Kerouvac succeeded, let me know what you think, OR ELSE...
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Summary: As pleasant as a root canal, only not so quick.
Review: I had high hopes for On The Road. We've all heard of it. When I started reading it, a friend commented, "On The Road! You can talk about it in bars and pick up chicks." And who doesn't like the concept of road trips? I would never want to pick up a chick who liked this book. Kerouac's writing style is bracingly similar to talking to a severely attention-deficit older brother, who is completely incapable of gauging the level of interest of the listener. The stories aren't connected by anything except chronology (which, in and of itself isn't necessarily a bad thing), but the complete inability to find depth or purpose in anything written makes for a long, dragging read. The whole book to me felt to be swirling in clouds of marijuana smoke, but you have the privelege of being sober while those telling the stories shake their head from side to side and say "Yeah, man! Yeah!" to cover for their inability to communicate, you know man, that FEELING man, yeah. By the end of Kerouac's long, drawn out story-- which is more or less just an homage to his travelling companion, on whom he had a clear and obvious crush-- I found myself not only not interested in anything labelled 'beat,' but strongly wanting to avoid it. Kerouac: I'd say don't bother. If you want beat, go with Burroughs, who's both articulate AND interesting.
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Summary: Worth a second look after life's made you beat
Review: Bought my copy at City Lights bookstore in San Francisco during a cross-country road trip in 1997. Couldn't get into the novel. Very scattershot, I felt then, and while far more readable than Burroughs found myself wondering if this had any point. Cut to 2002, summer. I pick up my yellowing copy which I've for some reason kept. I begin again, reading in the morning while guzzling coffee and waiting for caffeine/inspiration to come and lift me up. I am so taken by Kerouac's journey I underline phrases. And I realize On The Road is not a novel so much as a long-form poem in the style of Walt Whitman. Read it as such. It speaks to anyone who's lost the first blush of youth, feels everyday 9-to-5 Life is not just a drag but Purgatory, loves the America to be found between here and there, insanity, gone little ladies, and who fights the Beat fight to be childlike and pure when cynicism is the new Hip.
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Summary: What do you want out of life?
Review: That's precicely what we all ask ourselves unconsciously. That's what Jack Kerouac asks himself(he also asks girls this oh-so discreetly to get laid as well)as he roams the great U.S. of A. as his alter-ego Sal Paradise in search of himself and his reason for being. Sal embarks on an ominous and nihilistic journey of mayhem via walking, hitchiking, buses, & automobiles with his inseparable womanizing bud Dean Moriarty. Sal and Dean embody the disillusionment with a conformist society that tells them when, what, where, and how to live their lives. They vehemently reject the unwritten conformist social mores of society and the blasé 9-5 mundane way of life and exuberantly cast out on the road in search of happiness through perpetual motion(umm...and maybe a little booze, women, chicanery, thievery, and "tea"). Though On the Road may not endear itself to the more right-winged, nondaring, & uncreative traditionalist, I found it to be an unassumingingly refreshing, albeit hedonistic journey into the vast and wonderful diversity of people and places that comprise our great country.
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