On the Road

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.

Rating:
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!