The classic novel of freedom and the search for authenticity that defined a generationSeptember 5th, 2017 marks the 60th anniversary of the publication of On the RoadInspired by Jack Kerouac’s adventures with Neal Cassady, On the Road tells the story of two friends whose cross-country road trips are a quest for meaning and true experience. Written with a mixture of sad-eyed naiveté and wild … with a mixture of sad-eyed naiveté and wild ambition and imbued with Kerouac’s love of America, his compassion for humanity, and his sense of language as jazz, On the Road is the quintessential American vision of freedom and hope, a book that changed American literature and changed anyone who has ever picked it up.
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High school fav? On the Road, no question. I had such a crush on Kerouac.
The Beat Bible, if there must be one.
I used to romanticize beatnik culture. I thought it was all like Shaggy in Scooby-Doo or like people in thick framed glasses drinking bitter coffee and reading poetry slams. I wanted to be a beatnik, or at least a hipster. Then, I read this book: On the Road by Jack Kerouac, published through Penguin Books.
I almost DNF’d the book, but I like to …
This is a classic and should be read by readers interested in the time period, but on some level is is a frustrating book because of the author’s drive to self destruction.
Love this book, it’s one I wished I could write myself, amazing.
After I read this I wanted to jump up and hitchhike across America. Then I realized that I wasn’t living in the 1940s. One of the most interesting books I’ve ever read. It’s like a prose poem with a jazz beat. One of the great American novels.
I believe he wrote in two or three weeks, which is unbelievably fast. It’s the forerunner, if not the flag ship, for the “Beat Generation” which gave rise to the 60’s hippies. Takes one back to that time and the iconoclasm it generated. Legend has it he wrote it on rolls of toilet paper and while stoned. Neither is probably true, maybe somewhat …
A deeply subtextual book, this could be the original novel of male flight and male hysteria. This theme is never obvious like it is in the Rabbit series by John Updike, but two male friends do repeatedly drop all their commitments to home, women and family, and take to the open road for no-holds-barred anti-establishment adventures that helped to …
The iconic novel that launched a generation (the Beats), a lifestyle, and a literature of “spontaneous bop prosody”–part poetry, part picaresque, part jazz, part zen meditation, part road movie.
This is one of those important novels that I never got around to reading. It is often ranked high in Best Novels of the century or at least Best American Novels lists. I expected to *really* like it… I did not care for it. I did not like the main characters, the plot or the style. The men were selfish, deluded ass holes and the women are barely …
This famous book was once dismissed as mere typing. I would add that it is mere drug addled typing.
I do not understand why this is a classic. Basically it’s a bunch of irresponsible hedonistic misogynists running around trying to get drunk/high and laid, who mis-take their intoxicated incoherent conversations as something ‘deep’. A total waste of time. Don’t know why I even finished it.
Captures the rhythm of jazz in words.
I tried to struggle through this, as it is considered a ‘big deal’, but after a few chapters, I just couldn’t take it anymore. The self absorbed characters of this narrative were of no interest whatsoever. Despite the sometimes poetic prose, the subject matter, in the end, just brought it down to …boring.
Wonderful descriptions of what was happening then. Unfortunately then has morphed into now. We see some of the “Hip and Cool” mantras and beliefs have not stood the test of time very well.
I bought and read this book because it’s an American classic and often recommended to be read. Wow, what a disappointment. I didn’t like the story and didn’t like any of the characters.
it’s a great book. !!
This book made my generation get out at see the real America. I hitched around nine western states in the late 60’s, early 70’s, and drove across the continent a couple of times jacked up by the energy of Kerouac.
A classic…one of the great American adventures. All Kerouac’s books are amazing!
expected more, maybe that’s why I was disappointed.