On the Road in The Roundtable

Jan 07, 2009 El rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: 20th-centurylit-late, 1001-books-list, modern-library-list-top-100-fiction, peer-pressure

Wow, so that's done.

So I'm not really a fan of the Beat generation. God knows I've tried. I think an old friend once had a couch given to her by her father who once knew Allen Ginsberg, and Allen Ginsberg once sat or slept on the couch. That was sort of cool, just because I like trivia like that. But as far as the authors go, I have a hard time really digging it. I have tried to read On the Road ever since I first picked it up probably about fifteen years ago. Each time I have put it back down a Wow, so that's done.

So I'm not really a fan of the Beat generation. God knows I've tried. I think an old friend once had a couch given to her by her father who once knew Allen Ginsberg, and Allen Ginsberg once sat or slept on the couch. That was sort of cool, just because I like trivia like that. But as far as the authors go, I have a hard time really digging it. I have tried to read On the Road ever since I first picked it up probably about fifteen years ago. Each time I have put it back down after a few pages because I really can't make myself like Sal, and I especially can't make myself like Dean Moriarty.

But this time I really pushed myself, just so I can say that I've done it and I don't have to think about it anymore. I still don't like Dean Moriarty, and I have decided that Jack Kerouac and his buddies back then would have no chance of holding a real interesting conversation with me now. Now as I read I found myself making connections to Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, written some thirty years before On the Road was even conceived. I think Kerouac probably really liked Fitzgerald; I can at least appreciate some of Fitzgerald's writing, though the similarities between Fitzgerald and Kerouac's lives are pretty glaring and I can't stand behind either of them on a personal level.

Some surprises upon actually reading On the Road - the whole story does not take place on the road. For the amount of people who say that this story should be listened to in audio-book format while on the road, I was pretty convinced that the whole dang story took place inside a car. But the characters actually had outside lives and homes and weren't just transient beings, which added a level to the story I had not been anticipating.

Also, the ending of the book is possibly one of the best endings I have ever read. I won't ruin it for anyone, but I noticed that there actually was a point to the book by the end, and it wasn't just some guy's semi-autobiographical drug-induced musings. The relationship between Sal and Dean was about as realistic as you can get in terms of how friendships which once were the most important thing EVER suddenly aren't anymore. People change and forget to tell others is one of my most common sayings, and I was shocked to see Kerouac clearly felt the same way. He allowed that people can change, that life does go on, and that you can't hold onto the past forever. Before reading the book I thought he felt everything exactly opposite of that - more Live fast, die young, and anyone who felt differently was just a square.

Anyway, so I'm done with the book. I'm glad for that. I can not worry about it anymore. I can say I have read it and when someone says their favorite book EVER is On the Road I can call them out on it and hold an intelligent conversation about why they are out of their mind. But because of the few surprises I encountered throughout the story, I can't just flat-out hate it.

But really, Fitzgerald did it better. ...more

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Jul 17, 2020 Pamela rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: guardian-1000-read, boxall-1001-read

Sal Paradise and his friend Dean Moriarty travel across America. This book tells the story of their travels, time spent staying with friends or working for cash at menial jobs, picking up young women and sharing lifts with hitchhikers, experiencing life through drink drugs and jazz music.

Kerouac's prose bursts with enthusiasm and joie de vivre , creating vivid descriptions of landscapes and sunsets, or of jazz musicians playing in cramped clubs. He depicts a way of American life that is in cont ...more

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Nov 29, 2012 Rachel rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, classics, 1001-books-to-read-before-you-die

I enjoyed this more this time around. Of course I didn't remember a thing about it from the last time I read it, except for the image of Sal sleeping on the car and Dean sleeping on the hot dust of the ground next to the car. I really appreciated the language this time.

I remember being slightly disgusted by their antics and the way they treated their women, but this time I think it helped not to think of it as a lesson on how to live, but just a strange tale filled with beauty and living in the ...more

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Nov 07, 2012 Petra rated it liked it

It was off to a rocky start with this book but its growing on me.
The voice of the narrator, Matt Dillon, is gravelly and almost monotone, lending to a sparce, lonely feel.
The story is very "travels with charley"-ish: the same travel across America, searching for...what?...truth, insight, more. But Kerouac's journey is closer to the earth: he intermingles with the people on a longer, more intimate way than Steinbeck did. His life is rougher and wilder. Kerouac tells his story from a younger man ...more

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Sep 21, 2007 Meghan rated it it was ok

Shelves: own, modern-classics

Writing-wise, I suppose I should really give this book four stars, as I can intellectually understand why this book is so important. However, story-wise, this is an era long before my time and it is peopled with characters that I do not understand nor really care to understand. It felt like one really, really, really long road trip, and give great insight as to why boys want to do that continental drive once in their lives.

On the back of my book, Richard Holmes of The Times (London) compares him ...more

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Dec 30, 2013 Heather(Gibby) rated it liked it

Shelves: 1001-to-read, audio-book

I listened to this as an audio book, narrated by Will Patten who did an excellent job. I think this was a much more enjoyable listen than it would have been to read. Definitely agree with some other reviewers who indicated it was easier to relate to when read as a young person. As a grandma in my 50's, I kept thinking why don't these young men learn from their mistakes? But I totally understand that it is a book about self-discovery and adventures, and experiences for the sake of having experien ...more

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