Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2527 in Books
• Published on: 1998-09-03
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
On The Road, the most famous of Jack Kerouac's works, is not only the soul of the Beat movement and literature, but one of the most important novels of the century. Like nearly all of Kerouac's writing, On The Road is thinly fictionalised autobiography, filled with a cast made of Kerouac's real life friends, lovers and fellow travellers. Narrated by Sal Paradise, one of Kerouac's alter-egos, this cross-country bohemian odyssey not only influenced writing in the years since its 1957 publication but penetrated into the deepest levels of American thought and culture. --Acton Lane

Synopsis
Swinging to the rhythms of 1950s underground America, jazz, sex, generosity, chill dawns and drugs, with Sal Paradise and his hero Dean Moriarty, traveller and mystic, the living epitome of beat.

Customer Reviews

Okay, I get it..
I understand how books like Kerouac's get elevated to cult status. Take Hunter Thompson's Fear and Loathing for example, that was much the same as Kerouac and other Beat writers. It was not very poetic or well written but it took you somewhere, to a time and state of mind that was free and different for a new generation. Fear and Loathing is decent, this however is not. Certainly not worth the hype, it's long and boring and as a book alone it has no literary merit. You may read about him, his life and the ephemera around the book - then you may appreciate this more, but standing alone this has to be one of the worst books ever slapped on the high pedestal.

`A primer on how to be a narcissist.'
Before I read `On The Road' I read a critical review by a blog psychiatrist who denounced the work as `a primer on how to be a narcissist.' This struck me as accurate, but not as a valid criticism. The self absorbed characters coping with alienation from of their environment and the consequent dissatisfaction with everything the world offers up is this books strength. The novel describes a particular generation from a particular place and it does so unfalteringly.

Unforgettable!
A fast paced tale on bumming around america in the 40's music drugs girls and parties. Unforgettable characters and deep conversations that really hit home. Buy this book if you love the thought of getting up and just experiencing whats out there. Highly recommend!