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Loading... Why Kerouac Matters: The Lessons of On the Road (They're Not What You Think) (2007)by John Leland
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Those who read On the Road and saw it as a handbook for being irresponsible and rebellious, got it wrong. Kerouac wanted more for himself, and through his character Sal Paradise, showed that the way to get through life is to go through it and mature through its experiences. John Leland takes the reader behind the scenes to dig into the character of Kerouac and what he was trying to achieve with On the Road. Not quite completely biography, nor literary criticism, although a little of both. This is a good introduction to Kerouac and the literary milestone that is On the Road. ( ) If you liked ON THE ROAD you will probably like this book. John Leland has created a great commentary on the contents of this book using the same language that Jack Kerouac would have used if he were writing it himself. This is a fast read and helps the reader to understand the difference between the Jack in real life and the character Sal that he has created in the book. no reviews | add a review
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"In Why Kerouac Matters, John Leland embarks on a discussion of On the Road, arguing that it still matters because at its core it is full of lessons about how to grow up. Leland's focus is on Sal Paradise, the Kerouac alter ego, who has always been overshadowed by his fictional running buddy Dean Moriarty. Leland examines the lessons that Paradise absorbs and dispenses on his novelistic journey to manhood, and how those lessons - about work and money, love and sex, art and holiness - still reverberate today. He shows how On the Road is a primer for male friendship and the cultivation of traditional family values, and contends that the stereotype of the two wild and crazy guys obscures the novel's core themes of the search for atonement, redemption and divine revelation."--BOOK JACKET. 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:
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