On the Road (Maxnotes Literature Guides)

Academics and some intellectuals hate On the Road, which is a good enough reason as any to read it. If you listen to what these folks tell you, then you'll believe that Kerouac was some sort of brainless prodigy who didn't have an ounce of talent--or, if he had any talent, he had no control over it, like a pitcher with a great fastball who is unable to hit consistently the strike zone. Do you know why he isn't liked? Because Kerouac was, in fact, a natural writer and a craftsman who worked tirelessly to create literature, even as he experienced life to its fullest. He can't be a "real" writer, the reasoning goes, because the words came too easily to him. Just because they often did doesn't mean that Kerouac had no control over them. For proof, just look at his other novels, especially his first, The Town and the City. Kerouac knew what he was doing; he chose to write in a freewheeling, contemporary style that truly brought the American novel into the post-war era. It was poetry that did not ignore the language used by everyday people.The style perfectly fits the characters that populate On the Road. For example, Dean Moriarty, based on Kerouac's early muse, Neal Cassady, is one of the most "larger than life" characters in American literature. He seems barely contained by the pages that tell his story. On the Road is a book that will become a friend to you, a friend you can trust always to be honest and real whenever you encounter it. Academics don't know what they're missing. Another quick recommendation ---> The Losers' Club by Richard Perez

Published in 1957, this autobiographical novel by Jack Kerouac captured the spirit that was seething underneath 1950s conformity. Myth has it that he typed it non-stop for three weeks, using one long continuous sheet of paper. I understand it went through several drafts after that but it still holds the immediacy of that marathon typing session, the staccato rhythm of the words creating improvised rhythm across the page with little, if any punctuation. The narrator, Sal Paradise, is on an epic quest, one that takes him back and forth across the country with Dean Moriarity who is based on the real-life Neal Cassady. Dean, the reform school escapee who specializes in stealing cars, is Sal's mentor. And it is the automobile that is their chariot, which keeps them constantly in motion. Dean's madness is glorified, as is his ability to do whatever he pleases. There are a lot of drugs in the book, but liquor seems to be their drug of choice. They leave the heroin for a character loosely based on the real William Burroughs. Women drift in and out of the story, usually as one of Dean's lovers who he treats terribly. Dean treats everyone terribly though, abandoning Sal on several occasions, once while Sal was suffering from dysentery while they were in Mexico. Sal, however, always forgives Dean, seeing him as a god-like hero, no matter what he does. There's more to the book than the story though. The book is a trip, in every sense of the word. With the simple force of his writing, Kerouac took me on an adventure. With him I crisscrossed America, hitchhiking, walking, taking buses. With him I sat in a car driven by Dean Moriarity, speeding for hours at 110 miles an hour and not even thinking about a seatbelt. I met the pathetic women who loved Dean and didn't feel a bit sorry for them. I felt the quest in Dean's heart for his hobo father who he constantly searches for. And, I experienced the jazz, felt the heat and smelled the sweat in the many small bars, felt my head reel from the whisky and the sound all around me, stayed awake all night listening to sounds and being alone with the music in a room full of people. Yes, I felt I was there with the travelers, enjoying vicariously the thrills and the chills and knowing this would be my only entry into that world. Jack Kerouac eventually became an alcoholic and died an early death, but I'm personally grateful for this book he left behind and the experience of reading it. Highly recommended.

To appreciate this book you have to catch it at the right time in your life. I'm not talking age(though for most it's around eighteen), I'm talking about the limbo between responsibility and childhood. The ether-peak where you can see the world in all it's glory but have yet to figure out how to touch it. Kerouac was quite capable of putting things down conventially, The Town and the City, but he decided to go out and "roll is bones". For that he deserves more credit than he got. This book is great in its portrayal of The Beats' years before the maelstrom of fame hit them. It is the perfect romantic youth handbook.Read it before you take that summer off before college.Read it again before you go to Europe after college.(While you're in France read Henry Miller.) Read it, learn it, then throw it away and forget about it and live with a razor on your tongue and roman candles on your heels.P.S. The title and the "roll your bones" line are from a reading Kerouac did on the Tonight Show of the last page of THE book, with some improv thrown in. Much better than just ink and paper. Check it out in the box set.

I just finished reading On the Road today and although it took me awhile I think I've fallen in love with it. The views of life that Kerouac expressed are those that I would like to incorporate into my own. Every word of this novel breathes, shouts, screams freedom and takes the reader back to a time in our history when things were simple and true yet so wonderfully amazing. Reading this book inspired me to begin writing some of my own. In fact reading this book inspires me to shout from the rooftops about the joyful spontaneous chaos that is life! Kerouac had such talent -- I marked passages throughout this novel that moved me and enthralled me. This is the kind of life i would love to live -- not held down by anything, free to roam, free to be a person and fully experience life. Kerouac's writing has a wonderful simplicity to it that makes it so sincere. It's fantastically vibrant, passionate, and pure. I cannot wait to read this novel again. It took me to an America that I would have loved to have been a part of, an America that exists now only as history and memories.

As a junior in college, I was hesitant to read a Kerouac novel because of the negative connentations associated with the "Beats". While contemplating reading "On the Road", a friend nakedly asked me, "isn't that book about drugs?" My reply "I don't think so", couldn't mask my nervousness about the content of "On the Road". Was I about to read another dated novel about a scene whose time has passed? Well let me assure the quisical reader that this novel is the complete opposite of tired and dated. Kerouac is an amazing, inventive, and charismatic writer who entertains with every word. I assure you this novel is as entertaining as advertised. The plot revolves around the adventures of Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarity(thinly veiled altered egos of Kerouac and Neal Cassidy) as they cross the country in search of an illusive yet ever present freedom. Enjoyable scenes1. Paradise's first trip from the East Coast to the West Coast. The descriptions are joyously vivid and intensely enjoyable. Wow!2. Kerouac's descriptions of a jazz show in San Francisco. His enthusiasm for jazz is well-documented but this scene conveys the love for jazz like no other author has done before or after.Enjoy this novel with an open mind and a love for powerful writing.