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Loading... On the Road (original 1957; edition 1976)by Jack Kerouac
Work InformationOn the Road by Jack Kerouac (1957)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. A really good look at a specific period in US history. Nothing really transformative or redeeming about it - just a powerful taste of that time in our culture. ( ) Reads as the self-important ramblings of a solipsistic alcoholic gallivanting through America with no clear goal at all. His journey has not been ordered into anything readable at all: it sits there as a collection of disjointed episodes of youthful confidence, being about and leading to nothing. There is no reflection. The only thing keeping this at two stars is the sheer enthusiasm of the writing. Classic novel published in 1957, a fictionalized account of the author's travels back and forth across the continent in the late 1940s. Written in the first person, it tells of Sal Paradise (the narrator) and Dean Moriarty as they hitchhike, drive, and take buses all over the country, meeting various other characters. In some ways, the novel is a love paean to Dean (Neal Cassady in real life), who seems to be bipolar in manic mode for most of these trips. They do a lot of drinking and smoking marijuana, go out to jazz and other music clubs, and Kerouac spends lots of energy describing the wondrousness of the music he hears. I think the book's depiction of sex was a bit scandalous at the time too- he doesn't describe the sex in any detail, but tells about the chase at length. This book became one of the key touchstones of the "Beat Generation", and it did help me understand what "Beat" is- young people without a care, searching for new experiences, living on minimal money in post WWII America. I don't think the book ages that well. Probably I don't get it. The writing isn't anything amazing- I don't think Kerouac was particularly insightful about the inner life, and descriptions of the music and the people are not particularly beautiful or poetic. But I guess the vibe is the point, and he certainly gives us that. A bunch of messed up dudes traveling around, drinking too much, carrying on foolishness, while the rest of America went to work, and tried to be decent human beings. Kerouac has a unique style of writing that carried me through the book, but all I felt when it was finished was despair for the future of the human race. "Isn't it true that you start your life a sweet child believing in everything under your father's roof? Then comes the day of the Laodiceans, when you know you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, and with the visage of a gruesome grieving ghost you go shuddering through nightmare life." This is another one of those books you always hear or read about, but never read. I listened to an excellent audiobook version read by Matt Dillon. He totally nails the voice of proto-hipster Dean Moriarty, as well as Sal Paradise the narrator and others. This is definitely a character driven story. There is very little plot. Yet, you follow along, waiting to find out what each person will do next, hoping that they will eventually make a good decision. Pseudo-spoiler: they never do, not until the very end. Sal finally chooses sanity and home, over what his now burnt-out "friend" Dean offers. Kerouac writes prose full of high style and colorful descriptions of America of the late 1940s - a literary snapshot of an era. That's the reason I give it high marks.
The wonder of Kerouac’s muscular, free-form, imagistic language still astonishes. He remains an essential American mythologiser – one caught up in that backstreet world of bohemian life, before it was transformed by the harsh social Darwinism of capitalism. The title of his one towering achievement became a turn of phrase that went global, and his name became an adjective. That strikes me as not a bad legacy for a boy from the mean streets of post-industrial New England. A hundred years after his birth, we still want to live that Kerouacian vision of life as one long cool stretch of highway. Belongs to Publisher SeriesBibliotheca stylorum (2003) Compactos Anagrama (10) — 16 more Gallimard, Folio (766) L&PM Pocket (358) Penguin Audiobooks (PEN 37) Penguin Modern Classics (3192) rororo (1035) Is contained inHas the adaptationIs abridged inIs an expanded version ofInspiredHas as a studyHas as a commentary on the textHas as a student's study guideAwardsDistinctionsNotable Lists
On the Road chronicles Jack Kerouac's years traveling the North American continent with his friend Neal Cassady, "a sideburned hero of the snowy West." As "Sal Paradise" and "Dean Moriarty," the two roam the country in a quest for self-knowledge and experience. Kerouac's love of America, his compassion for humanity, and his sense of language as jazz combine to make On the Road an inspirational work of lasting importance. No library descriptions found.
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
Penguin Australia5 editions of this book were published by Penguin Australia. Editions: 0141182679, 0140265007, 0141037482, 0241951534, 0141198206 |