Book Review: Jack Kerouac's On The Road

So what can I say about On The Road? I feel like this book slapped me in the face and I don't really know WHAT to say about it. For this before the cut section, I guess I'll just stick with posting this picture of the REAL Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty (Jack Kerouac - pictured on the right, and his friend Neal Cassady - on the left)


This may be shallow of me, but it will make sense after reading the book - I was very pleased to see in my internet searching that both Jack Kerouac and Dean Casssady are extremely good-looking men. If they hadn't been then I think the book just wouldn't have been as good. That's bad of me to think... Oh well


But seriously, which as much carousing around and slutting it up as these two dudes did in the book, I would have found it much less believable if they were ugly. Also, I guess it makes their whole hobo lifestyle more glamourous. And finally, as sad as it is, it is so much easier to forgive an attractive person for the kinds of moral indiscretions that these guys partake in in this book. SO enough about their real life attractiveness and onto the book.

This book was really perfect to read for a summer traveling theme as it featured both adjectives in an abundance. I had been experiencing some extreme lust for the hobo lifestyle recently - who knows why, I sure don't - so reading this book was a real way to indulge in living the lifestyle without having to actually do it. And seriously, after this book, I think I really wouldn't want to. The unstable lifestyle they lead in this book is certainly not one I could tolerate. It was a real treat to experience through literature though. It is things like this that I think literature are for. I was able to live out a secret desire of mine through a book and that's a real beautiful thing.

On the other hand, I can One Hundred Percent see how this book could become a sort of ambulatory, beat bible for someone who was so inclined to actually go through with their hobo desires. This book isn't the keystone of the beat generation for nothing. But not only was this book a great educational lesson into the beat life, it was a really interesting examination into the nature of friendships and the self as well. Also I enjoyed reading this reflection of America from the 1940's. It kind of takes you back to America's past glory and reminds you why this actually used to be an inspiring country. It makes me wish I could experience America in that way, but the book leaves me feeling that maybe I still could. I don't know.

All in all, I think that this book lived up to it's hype for me. It had an interesting plot, multi-dimensional characters, an interesting experimental writing style - which I think added to the beat feeling of the book. The writing style was a little distracting at first, but in the end the frantic, confused sentences are necessary to really FEEL the beat lifestyle.

My only beef with this book is that all of the events and characters are based on real events and people. I even found a list on wikipedia that said the character name and who it actually was. In a way this is really cool, but at the same time, I spent so much time in the book trying to figure out who was actually who that I couldn't just forget about it and pretend that it was all fictional. I really shouldn't have read the introduction to the book first in this case. It messed me up too much. So I guess that's all really. What did you think??