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On the Road (Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century) (Paperback)
by Jack Kerouac
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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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Author: Jack Kerouac
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Pub. in: June, 1999
ISBN: 0140283293
Pages: 304
Measurements: 8.6 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
Origin of product: USA
Order code: BA00433
Other information: Rev Ed edition
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"Boys & girls in America have such a sad time together; sophistication demands they submit to sex immediately without proper preliminary talk. Not courting talk - real straight talk about souls, for life is holy and every moment is precious." From On The Road
First published in 1957, On The Road is Jack Kerouac's best known work and has come to define a group of writers and their style as the Beat Generation. Like other Kerouac novels, it is very much autobiographical fiction.
The main character is Sal Paradise, one of Kerouac's pseudonyms, a young man in post-war America who has no real sense of who he is or even who he wants to be. He befriends Dean Moriarty, loosely based on Kerouac's friend Neal Cassady, and the two leave New England for a series of experiences that will take them form one side of the country to the other.
Along the way they will meet countless people in countless places, each time getting a look at life. By this I mean real life, not the Patty Duke nuclear family life of the ideal 1950's. This was the part of America that we weren't supposed to see. This was the proof that the materialism and ideals weren't working for everyone.
We cannot speak with any experience as to the reception this novel might have received from mainstream America, but we can speculate. Parents would in all likelihood have seen this book as a threat to "civilized" America, and would have locked their children in their bedrooms and thrown away the key at the very mention of Kerouac's name.
The drug use in the novel is rampant. Dean and Sal smoke "tea" with nearly everyone they meet. They pal around with "dangerous" jazz musicians. Keep in mind this was written during the first years of the Cold War and McCarthyism was at its height. Musicians, artists, actors and writers were finding themselves blacklisted for being communists everyday.
The book also eats away at the American ideal of good work getting one ahead in life. Dean has no real job. Sal is a writer, which is no real job either in some people's closed minds. When they make friends with crop workers, working the crop is the furthest thing from their minds. Everything is to be done "manana" which of course means "tomorrow."
Jack Kerouac was a man who was years ahead of his time. It is unfortunate that even now his work cannot enjoy universal praise, for the ideals he argued against then are in many ways only stronger now. It is hard to believe that On The Road was published more than 40 years ago, but is equally impossible to believe that it could have been made today.
On The Road has taken a terrible beating from modern critics. Harold Bloom, the dean of modern American critics, has written the most damning review I have ever read of a book in the Preface to his Twentieth Century Interpretations volume. Basically, he says that On The Road is a worthless piece of trash. We strongly disagree. On The Road is extremely uplifting, optimistic and inspirational. It makes you a life lover. We highly recommend this true American classic to everyone.
Target readers:
General readers
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Jack Kerouac's (1922-1969) On the Road was published in 1957, six years after its completion. It went on to become a bestseller and is considered the quintessential statement of the 1950's literary movement known as the Beat Generation. Born in Lowell, Massachusetts, Kerouac did stints at Columbia University, in the Navy and in the Merchant Marine before meeting Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs and Neal Cassady, who would influence the rest of his life and his writing. Kerouac died in St. Petersburg, Florida at the age of forty-seven.
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From Publishers Weekly
Fans of Kerouac get the whole beautiful, groovy deal with this new recording of the radically hip novel that many consider the heart of the Beat movement. Poetic, open and raw, Kerouac's prose lays out a cross-country adventure as experienced by Sal Paradise, an autobiographical character. A writer holed up in a room at his aunt's house, Paradise gets inspired by Dean Moriarty (a character based on Kerouac's friend Neal Cassady) to hit the road and see America. From the moment he gets on the seven train out of New York City, he takes the reader through the highs and lows of hitchhiking, bonding with fellow explorers and opting for beer before food. First published in 1957, Kerouac's perennially hot story continues to express the restless energy and desire for freedom that makes people rush out to see the world. The tale is only improved by Dillon's well-paced, articulate reading as he voices the flow of images and graveled reality of Paradise's search for the edge.
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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. |
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. |
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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