Product Description

On the Road swings 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. Now recognized as a modern classic, its American Dream is nearer that of Walt Whitman than Scott Fitzgerald, and it goes racing towards the sunset with unforgettable exuberance, poignancy and autobiographical passion.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #693 in Books
• Published on: 2007-08-13
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 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

About the Author
Jack Kerouac (1922 – 1969) was an American novelist, poet, artist and part of the Beat Generation. Most of his life was spent in the vast landscapes of America or living with his mother, with whom he spent most of his life. Kerouac's best known works are On the Road and The Dharma Bums. Ann Charters, professor of English at the University of Connecticut, has been interested in Beat writers since 1956, when as an undergraduate English major she attended the repeat performance of the Six Gallery poetry reading in Berkeley where Allen Ginsberg gave his sencond public reading of Howl. After his death she wrote the first Kerouac biography and edited his posthumous collection, Scattered Poems. She was the general editor of the two-volume encyclopaedia The Beats: Literary Bohemians In Postwar America and has published a collection of her photographic portraits of well-known writers in the book Beats & Company.

Customer Reviews

Believe the Hype?
On The Road has become something of a legend over the last 50 years or so, moving up the list of books many people claim to have read but never really do. It was in, a way, the birth of the Beatniks and the Hippies who have since forced their way into the public consiousness in last half century and is therefore a rather large deal.

It takes just one look at the Amazon description of the book to see how cliched people's views of this novel have become, but although the slang has become cringeworthy over time, the purity of the message Kerouac was trying to convey throughout has not diminished. Highly autobiographical, On The Road records the journeys undertaken by Jack and other prominent Beat figures such as Ginsberg, Burroughs and the charismatic Neal Cassady. But this book is about so much more than the jazz, the sex, the cars and the booze (although they are pretty awesome, it is more a field report from Jack about the state of America, the world and most importantly, his soul.

His spontaneous prose method often leaves us with writing that is considered by some to be sub-par, but the speed and ferosity of his style really brings home the moments when Jack breathes in and exhurts some of the most beautiful poetic observations of the most mundane and absurd aspects of modern life. My favourite example comes after a 4-5 page description of a 'wild' party in the Rockies when Jack is stumbling through narrow bar alleys and through his writing you can suddenly feel him look up at the stars above and utter a profound observation of the seperation of the land and its inhabitants.

Doesn't sound like much, but if you're open minded and can handle the corny slang this is a book you must read.


Dharma Bums is pretty amazing too x

My first taste of Kerouac.....certainly not the last
I picked this up a few years ago and literally read it in a day. Kerouac writes with such intense emotion, you really feel the highs and definitly the lows. Friendship, love, drugs and family are all covered in this book, but nothing is sensationalised. The feelings are raw and intense yet matter-of-fact at the same time. The text flows through your mind like all of Kerouacs stuff, it is simply written but you can feel what he means, and you do feel. Please buy this book

lost the plot
To those "who don't get it" it may seem in today's ultra-cynical world, a hap-hazard collection of autobiographical travelogues from a bunch of drugged-up joyriders, interspersed with American myth and cliche. It's important to appreciate and understand "why" OTR has become "a famous book". This was written several years before Marlon Brando slipped on his leathers to become "The Wild One", before James Dean rebelled without any apparent cause and before, "The King" rotated his pelvis and shocked the world! Kerouac's image as a symbol of 1950's youth culture rebellion (he was fast becoming a reactionary by then)has somewhat clouded the issue of his talent as a writer. "Spontaneous prose" may imply that it was written "on the hip" and therefore less worthy of appreciation than more "heavy-weight" 20th century writers. NOT TRUE.In fact he follows in the same traditions of Hemingway and F Scott Fitgerald in exploring the contradictions of the American psyche and adds a fast-moving poetic style that reflects the romantic dreams and wander-lust of an individual who ultimately, was set for self-destruction. Don't read this as he supposedly wrote it.. take your time, start in the middle if you want. It's true there is no real plot -just some fantastic writing where feelings/moods are conveyed in much the same way as a favourite song does (i.e. Sal's Greyhound bus journey from Denver to San Francicsco)- it's no coincidence he inspired such noteworthy lyricists as Bob Dylan and Lennon and McCartney among others. Enjoy it for what it is...it's his finest work and a catalyst for the "Counter-Culture".