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Loading... On the Road: The Original Scroll (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) (2007)by Jack Kerouac
None.  shanaqui | Apr 9, 2013 |  On the Road chronicles Jack Kerouac's years traveling the North American continent with his friend Neal Cassady, "a side-burned 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.  tauruseducation | Mar 28, 2013 | Sorry but this book done nothing for me. Very hard to read. Its just the story of Sal Paradise and his very dodgy mate Dean Moriarty travelling across America then ending up in Mexico. We went there then we done this. Thats what the whole book is about there doesnt seem any actual substance to this book. I cant believe how many people rave about this book. I dont know how it got published. I couldnt care less about the 2 characters didnt warm to them at all. All I can say is I am so glad I finished reading it. (  ) Daftboy1 | Mar 14, 2013 | Rediscovering the magic of On The Road - brilliant: http://kaggsysbookishramblings.wordpress.com/2013/01/07/recent-reads-on-the-road... (  ) kaggsy | Jan 7, 2013 | I'll give Kerouac credit: On the Road has a propulsive, relentless movement. Bereft of paragraphs or chapter breaks, it just keeps churning along, dragging the reader along for the ride. On the other hand, I was more than a little surprised at how small it made everything seem. Where I was expecting something exploring the epic grandeur of America (something more along the line of Steinbeck's Travels with Charlie), Kerouac delivers a story so obsessed with such a small fraction of the country, even as it travels from coast to coast, that I just found myself wondering about all that was omitted. He returns over and over to the same places and the same people, and while I enjoyed their kaleidoscopic bacchanal, I got no sense at all of The Road. To be honest, aside from the possibility that it accurately captures the sense of what life was like for that generation (a proposition I'm by no means convinced of), I'm not exactly sure why this is considered such a classic. I think the dirty little secret of On the Road is that Kerouac doesn't actually like the road. (  ) jawalter | Nov 18, 2012 | no reviews | add a review
Amazon.com Amazon.com Review (ISBN 0143105469, Paperback)The legendary 1951 scroll draft of On the Road, published word for word as Kerouac originally composed itThough Jack Kerouac began thinking about the novel that was to become On the Road as early as 1947, it was not until three weeks in April 1951, in an apartment on West Twentieth Street in Manhattan, that he wrote the first full draft that was satisfactory to him. Typed out as one long, single-spaced paragraph on eight long sheets of tracing paper that he later taped together to form a 120-foot scroll, this document is among the most significant, celebrated, and provocative artifacts in contemporary American literary history. It represents the first full expression of Kerouac's revolutionary aesthetic, the identifiable point at which his thematic vision and narrative voice came together in a sustained burst of creative energy. It was also part of a wider vital experimentation in the American literary, musical, and visual arts in the post-World War II period. It was not until more than six years later, and several new drafts, that Viking published, in 1957, the novel known to us today. On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of On the Road, Viking will publish the 1951 scroll in a standard book format. The differences between the two versions are principally ones of significant detail and altered emphasis. The scroll is slightly longer and has a heightened linguistic virtuosity and a more sexually frenetic tone. It also uses the real names of Kerouac's friends instead of the fictional names he later invented for them. The transcription of the scroll was done by Howard Cunnell who, along with Joshua Kupetz, George Mouratidis, and Penny Vlagopoulos, provides a critical introduction that explains the fascinating compositional and publication history of On the Road and anchors the text in its historical, political, and social context. Celebrating 50 Years of On the Road
(retrieved from Amazon Sun, 06 Jan 2013 12:56:58 -0500) On the Road chronicles Jack Kerouac's years travelling 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.… (more) |
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Wikipedia in English (1)
A 50th anniversary hardcover edition of Kerouac's classic novel that defined a generation. 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. 
Why Kerouac Matters: The Lessons of On the Road (They're Not What You Think): John Leland, author of Hip: A History argues that On the Road still matters not for its youthful rebellion but because it is full of lessons about how to grow up. 
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“the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars.”
It was actually quoted in a fanfiction, as Axel's favourite book (Kingdom Hearts AU). It's stuck with me, ever since: not the fanfiction itself, but the quotation. For that, I've loved Kerouac from afar, not daring to try reading it because that quote told me all I needed to know.
Actually, I kind of wish I was still in that state of not having read On the Road. Because it's not really my kind of book, and I think I've always known that. There are bits of it that are, well, like fabulous roman candles, but I don't have the patience with the narration to get to them before I'm annoyed. It's not an atmosphere that appeals to me, not a mindset I can really get behind, so...
But On the Road is still deservedly a classic, and the book has travelled with me for long enough -- for a few years, in physical form, between various student houses; for longer than that, with the quotation in my head -- that I feel quite affectionate toward it, and it's going to keep travelling with me. (