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On the Road (Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century) (平装)
by Jack Kerouac
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Fiction |
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| MSL Pointer Review:
An icon of the the "Beat Generation," this classic of self-discovery has changed generations of wide-eyed, life-hungry, backpacking youth into warriors and seekers of the open road. |
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AllReviews |
1 Total 1 pages 6 items |
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Ed Uyeshima (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-09 00:00>
Jack Kerouac's seminal work still resonates nearly fifty years after its original publication because the writing is still quite ripe with human insight and attitudes that have changed little when it comes to seizing the day. His novel focuses on innocent Sal Paradise, who narrates the story, and his inspiration, a wild spirit he meets in New York named Dean Moriarty. As polar opposites, they share but one common bond, a pervasive feeling of desperation in a time when the Cold War produced a spiritual void and a sense of nihilism. Their response is to set out on the road and live life one precious moment at a time. Through Kerouac's stream-of-consciousness narrative, the two experience life in all its dimensions in all sorts of settings throughout the country, whether in sleepy towns, rural areas or big cities, bouncing from New York to Chicago to San Francisco to Los Angeles to Mexico and back again.
In the process, Sal and Dean meet some memorable characters along the way in places as diverse as a Virginia diner, a New York jazz nightclub and a Mexican border bordello. The jazz, poetry and drug experiences that Kerouac chronicles have a palpable feel about them as they represent how the characters dealt with their often desperate feelings about death, an ethos quite central to what the Beat Generation was all about back then. The prose can get quite maddening at times, but that is exactly Kerouac's point, the fact that life is not a carefully constructed story with a message. In fact, much of the book resulted from the author's scribblings in tiny notebooks he kept while traveling for a period of seven years. Even though there is a dated feeling in the portrayal of the American Dream specific to that period, the novel still haunts with Kerouac's imagery of people whose individual spirits either crushed them or left them still searching for greater meaning.
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Ian Townsend (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-09 00:00>
Jack Kerouac's classic novel, On The Road, was written at a time when little was known of the "Beat Generation" by mainstream America. Kerouac's shocking description of the drug use, promiscuity, irresponsibility, and nomadic lifestyle of his compatriots horrified conservative readers.
One interesting aspect of On The Road is the use of Kerouac's own life as a basis for many of the characters of the novel. Kerouac's Dean Moriety is a near carbon copy of Neal Cassidy, exemplified in the accurate description of Dean's childhood home in the West, the meeting between Sal (Kerouac's fictional counterpart) and Dean, and Dean's effect on Sal's life and friends. Carlo Marx is also based on one of Kerouac's close friends, poet Allen Ginsberg. William S. Burroughs is described as well, manifested as Bull Lee.
Another contributing factor to On The Road is the environment in which Kerouac wrote the novel. Kerouac wrote On The Road in a period of just a few weeks, on a single scroll of paper. Fueled by marijuana, alcohol, and benzedrine, On The Road seems, at times, sloppy and raw without the usual refined display of a great novel. The fact that Kerouac's novel is imperfect helps to portray the emotion felt by Kerouac towards the subjects of his writing.
The plot behind On The Road goes on a train of highs and lows, largely depending on the mood of the narrator at the time of writing. Some of this can be attributed to the drug use by Kerouac over the duration of the novel, as well as reliving the emotions relived during the process. While at an emotional high, Kerouac weaves a tale full of inspiring, insightful thoughts and actions on the parts of Sal as well as Dean cast as beatific characters, but during low periods Kerouac's writing becomes cumbersome, dull, and hard to read.
Overall, On The Road can be recommended for any reader at any age, as long as the reader accepts the obscene behavior as merely an accurate description of the Beat Generation. Kerouac's novel serves at once as a guide to finding true feelings, a description of the Beat generation, and a nearly autobiographical description of Kerouac's life. |
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Tigg (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-09 00:00>
Sal Paradise is a writer just like Kerouac who decides to 'see America'. He hitches rides, washes dishes, works on farms, sleeps on floors and under the stars, experiencing new flavors of life and meeting different kinds of people he never thought existed. It is a kaleidoscopic journey across this country, not some plastic trip on flying tin cans, staying in gaudy hotels, hobnobbing with phony people and walking through tourist traps in line with the flock. He meets other writers just like himself coming and going On The Road who convey their own experiences and enrich Sal's ever more in the process.
The conflict comes in the figure of Dean Moriarty, a hustler and con man who the beatniks first embrace as one of their own, but eventually identify for what he is after patterns begin to emerge in his relationships with his peers. Sal at first sees Dean as a hero, a role model, but slowly grows disillusioned with broken promises, threadbare lies, irresponsible behavior, and eventual deceit and betrayal. The whole story is focused on Sal and Dean, and just as the two go off on a tangent down into Mexico and on into Central America, it seems analogous as to how Sal's vision become blurred and misdirected in following an agenda he mistakenly believes to be his own.
This is probably the best book written on the Beat Generation, capturing the essence of the times and the spirit that established what became the underground culture of America. Teens and young adults having trouble articulating their deepest feelings may find that Kerouac did it for them almost a half century ago. Don't miss it! Along with this great novel, I'd also like to recommend, The Losers Club by Richard Perez. |
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An American reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-09 00:00>
What few people realize in reading this book, and how it is almost never taught in the academic circles and higher education institutions of the world, is that On the Road, in my mind, should be classified with works such as Walden, The Communist Manifesto, and even President Hoover's little known speech "Rugged Individualism." This book, although perhaps the first piece to integrate Faulkner's stream of conscious style with the belief that real life stories are more exciting than any fiction could ever be, is to many people the very first piece of literature to attack the uninspiring, alienating, vapid and humdrum life of those living in suburban nightmares. This review is intended for those who do not understand why so many people like this book. The key to understanding this book is to understand Suburbia. In particular, what it does to people.
Suburbia. It accounts for almost all new development schemes and is home to millions. But what is it exactly? Suburbia are communities nestled between the bustling city and the backwoods farm villages. It is neither city nor country. It is an American invention developed in response to the hordes of returning WWII GIs. Two monumental events happened to make Suburbia what it is now 1) the standardization of construction materials, allowing for rapid and unhindered development 2) the Federal Housing Act that gave mortgages to tens of thousands of families. These two factors would create a development spree heretofore unknown to the American landscape. It would also help spark the Beat Generation and in turn something even more volatile-The Sixties.
The theory behind Suburbia is sound. Build a nice community with affordable housing far enough from the city to avoid the crime and stress, but not too far away that you couldn't get to the city to work. And truthfully, it could have been like this. Except for one major flaw. Zoning.
In Suburbia, land is zoned into massive residential zones and commercial zones. There is no mix (mix-use) as we see in the city and countryside. For example, in the city a home could sit next to a barbershop or a bar or across from an acting theater. In Suburbia we don't have this. Where we live is isolated from where we shop. We have to drive everywhere (when was the last time you walked anywhere in Suburbia?). This creates social alienation (when was the last time you said hi to the old man that owns the dime store on the corner?). We don't stop and talk to our neighbors on our way to the grocery store or to the theater like we would in the city or countryside. We become isolated and surrounded by convenience stores, track homes, and every type of establishment that costs a mere pittance to develop.
We sit at home and watch TV because we can't walk to cultural events like in the cites and even in the country. This creates isolation, loneliness and a culture of fear. Sound like America to you now? It's not ironic that many of the school shootings are happening in Suburbia.
When I talk to people about this book, those whom really appreciate it are middle-to-upper middle class suburban, white, male Americans. People that grew up on tales of adventure and all the founding characteristics that define what America was to the early pioneers - rugged individualism, freedom, community, friendship, and the ability to set the standard. What America is not now or has been really since this Suburbia thing developed. I can't really imagine an African -American or a Hispanic person living in the ghettos appreciating this book. To this person, the thought of a suburban community is probably much more appealing than living in federal housing projects. I also can understand why women have problems with this book. The Beats weren't really politicking for work place equality. And I can see a conservative fellow living in the country having trouble with On the Road. This man, who has access to hunting, hiking, nature, and community involvement probably can't understand what Kerouac has done here. The immigrants coming from the Old World at the turn of the 20th century had amazing challenges to face-nation- building, wars to fight. The Civil Rights movement defined an entire group of people. But to those of us born in Suburbia, we were robbed of our challenges, whether they are good or bad. We were born into nothingness.
I first read On The Road at the age of 16 and I was immediately floored. It didn't take but a split second for me to understand what was written. I could instantly identify that Kerouac had written a manifesto that openly challenged Suburbia, intentionally or not. I myself lived in a phony upper-middle class, white community near sprawling townhouses, track homes, and strip malls. I realized that every generation before mine in America had been defined by its struggle - The Civil Rights Movement, WWII, The Great Depression, Prohibition, The Civil War, The American Revolution. But with the advent of Suburbia and the death of community, legions of us were born into nothingness-cultureless television land. And here's the theme of the whole book-a group of young suburbanites in desperate search for an identity. Kerouac and The Pranksters of the Sixties were only looking for what the early American pioneers were looking for- adventure, freedom and rugged individualism.
Kerouac and his band of zany followers were looking for spirituality, excitement, and sincerity in a world that was becoming wrapped up in materialism and television. And so were the kids of the Sixties and why most of the Sixties participants were suburban kids. Now, as Suburbia spreads across America and isolation and fear grow, a new generation has begun to relate to the writings of this man.
So to you, dear reader, your criticisms about this book are not unfounded. But realize that this book is best understood by those living and dwelling in the worst of all places: Suburbia. |
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Davie Boiani (MSL quote) , USA
<2007-01-09 00:00>
I just don't understand it. How is this book a classic? I can sum the whole story up in a couple of sentences...Drove fast to a new town,drank and chased women,drove fast to a new town,drank and chased women...over and over and over again. This is one of the most shallow, hollow books that I have ever read. If You want to read a real classic try The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand or The God File by an underated ,talented new writer Frank Turner Hollon but please, for your own good, stay away from this.
(A negative review. MSL remarks.)
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Johnwhite Head (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-09 00:00>
The only people for Jack Kerouac "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..." (6). Kerouac delivers the quintessential story of these mad ones in his second novel, On The Road. This semi-auto- biographical tale of adventure and personal discovery while journeying back and forth across the American landscape is an unabashed celebration of "the Beat Generation," of which Kerouac himself is regarded as a hero. This beat generation, and their refusal to conform to the standards of post-World War II America, was the pre-cursor to the Sex, Drugs, & Rock `n' Roll revolution of the 1960s. This often overlooked cultural stepping stone is ignited with Kerouac's passion for his own experiences, romanticized into a novel that is highlighted by his bounding enthusiasm for burning onto the page what was burned into his mind during his submersion into a counterculture that existed before the term counterculture pigeonholed these free spirits into a marketable classification that can be sold on MTV. Even as I write this critique, I feel myself bounding into thought, much as Kerouac was apt to do while hammering out large sections of On The Road on the 35 meter roll of typing paper he scribbled his benzadrene-crazed romanticisms onto.
Kerouac's pseudonym for the purposes of narrating this semi-auto- biography is Sal Paradise, a young and adventurous but thoughtful man who has just separated from his wife, is writing a novel, and is planning a trip across the country to San Fransisco. He desires to meet old friends there; specifically Dean Moriarty, a young man of boundless enthusiasm and a lust for life like Sal has never seen. The first we hear from Dean comes in a rambling, excited speech to his young wife Marylou: "...it is absolutely necessary now to postpone all those leftover things concerning our personal lovethings and at once begin thinking of specific worklife plans..." (2)These are the ramblings of a mad man, exactly the mad man Kerouac-I mean Sal-is so fascinated with. Dean is Sal's adventuresome spirit, calling out to him a number of times throughout the novel to again travel westward across "all that raw land that rolls in one unbelievable huge bulge over to the West Coast, and all that road going, all the people dreaming the immensity of it..." (307).
The story is hard to articulate into one main action; it is rather a collection of Sal's recollections of travels back and forth across America, and the impressions left on him by each individual character he stops to meet and live with for short times. From the politely mad chatter of Remi: "A shadow of disappointment crossed Remi's brow-he was always being disappointed about the funniest things. He had a heart of gold," (64); to Old Bull Lee's sheer insanity. It is an overall sense of these characters, of each one's unique lust of life outside the norms of society, that Kerouac celebrates and the reader must judge for themselves. The thread is Dean; he is the classic, the quintessential counterculture hero, who carries with him the thrill and exhilaration that breathes life into everything else around him, causing trouble and raising hell and being cheered on for it. "`Whoee!' Dean yelled. `Here we go!' And he hunched over the wheel and gunned her; he was back in his element, everybody could see that. We were all delighted, we all realized we were leaving confusion and nonsense behind and performing our one and noble function of the time, move," (134), which raises the fundamental question of On The Road. Kerouac's romantic vision of these characters ends on more somber tones. By the end of his tale, after several trips across America, Sal finds himself back in New York, where he also finds his true love, Laura. He finds also his old friends of such great energy and youth, drained by their lives of wild, reckless abandon. "Remi was fat and sad now but still the eager and formal gentleman, and he wanted to do things the right way," (306). So Remi has aged, but it is Dean, the great mythical counter- culture God of the road, who feels the weight of his life the most. By the end of his journeys, "he was three times married, twice divorced, and living with his second wife," (303). So he too is exhausted, but the sadness of that exhaustion is revealed: "...he stared with rocky sorrow into his hands... `Can't talk no more-do you understand that it is-or might be-but listen!'" (304). At the end, Dean can no longer even finish a complete thought. His weary mind and body have given up, the youthful exuberance drained from him. It is an ending reminiscent of images of the great rock `n' roll pioneers as they aged ungracefully into the 1970s. Neil Young performing for The Last Waltz with cocaine hanging from his nose and wrinkles piercing every inch of his torn face. The untimely passing of Hendrix, Joplin, Moon, Brian Jones...counterculture superstars eaten up by their own heroics.
So are these heroics? Is Dean a character to be loved, or pitied? Kerouac loved Dean, most likely to his dying days (Kerouac passed away in his forties, another victim of his own heroics), but does that necessarily mean we should? On The Road is a blast of fresh air, a celebration of abandoning the constraints of a burdening society; but it is also pause for reflection, and consideration of what it really means to live free and be of an independent spirit. Were these young men revolutionaries, misfits of great heroism? Or were they misfits of a society only insofar as their laziness, and desire to spend their lives drinking, smoking, and having sex? As much as Old Jack Kerouac would have us all embrace their rebellious joy, it is for each reader to decide whether or not to love these men. But one thing is sure: the ride On The Road with Sal, Dean, Marylou, and all the rest is surely worth the read. |
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1 Total 1 pages 6 items |
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