On the Road by Jack Kerouac
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(Hardcover - 40th Anniversary)
- Pub. Date: September 1997
- 352pp
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Product Details
- Pub. Date: September 1997
- Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
- Format: Hardcover, 352pp
- ISBN-13: 9780670874781
- ISBN: 0670874787
- Edition Number: 40
- Edition Description: 40th Anniversary
Synopsis
Essential Edition handsomely packaged with french flaps, rough fronts, high-quality paper, and a distinctive cover look
On the Road chronicles Jack Kerouac's years traveling the North American continent with his friend Neal Cassady, "a sideburned hero of the snowy West." As "Sal Paradise" and "Dean Moriarty," the two roam the country in a quest for self-knowledge and experience. Kerouac's love of America, his compassion for humanity, and his sense of language as jazz combine to make On the Road an inspirational work of lasting importance.
Kerouac's classic novel of freedom and longing defined what it meant to be "Beat" and has inspired every generation since its initial publication more than forty years ago.
New York Times
The most beautifully executed, the clearest and the most important utterance yet made by the generation Kerouac himself named years ago as 'beat.'.
More Reviews and RecommendationsBiography
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.
Customer Reviews
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The Road Makes for Good Travel but a Slow Storyby NerdFighter_92
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January 15, 2010: I was at first hesitant to read On the Road, not because I thought it would be a bad book , but because it had reached a point in literary fame that I knew it had inevitably been over hyped. To be honest, it was. I'm not trying to be overly negative. I really did enjoy the book, but it's not my favorite book of all time. That is a place still reserved in my heart for Nineteen Eighty Four. The reason I can never really love this book is the most basic feature of it: concept. I don't particularly care for the idea of non-fiction in the first place and in second place the idea of a non fiction based on no major event is even worse. Yes, I admit that it the book is very interesting and that I found his flow of consciousness writing style to be enjoyable but for some reason I just could not get really into the book. There is just something very anti climamactic about a story that consist of little more then a random travel.
By far the best quality of the entire book was the characters that flowed in and out of it. Dean Morainty (Neal Cassidy) paints perfectly the image of a careless free spirit in a way that could not have been done better ,even had Jack simply created him out of his imagination. I have also always had an admiration of Allen Ginsberg so it is only natural that I should like his character humorously named Carlo Marx. But more interesting then even learning about the beats was learning about the "normal" people he met during his time on the road whether it be an eccentric truck driver giving him a ride, a young Mexican lady that he finds emotional connection to, or a person that comes to join his circle of Beatniks the random people in life always seem to be exceptionally interesting.By the end though even the fascination I have with people was not enough to win me over. I think as I write this now, that perhaps I would have liked it more had I came in with no expectations, but that just cant happen with a book like On the Road. Everyone reading it is going to have expectations of what the book is going to bring to the, table and if it doesn't deliver on those expectations it will seem worse then it is. For this reason I will never really know how good this book would be if I came in with a completely open mind, but I suspect I would still believe there are good characters with no actual storyline.Simple and Carefreeby Raven_Nevermore2004
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October 30, 2009: On The Road is a simplistic story about a man who wanted to make a drastic change with his life. Most people don't have the guts to do it. Sal Paradise was unhappy living his life as it was so took off for the west coast in search of...meaning. It was something he was skeptical in doing at first, but his buddy Dean Moriarty was sure this is what he needed. Dean is the extreme adventurous type who can never stay in one place for too long. He is the proof that as much as people need to mix it up, everything needs to be done in moderation. This gives hope to those who would like to have the option to escape from it all. It shows that it can be done. Sal experiences what life is like all throughout the country again and again. It's a scenic trip the whole time that I would recommend to any reader with a free spirit.
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