#55 on Board Review and #42 on Readers List:
On The Road by Jack Kerouac:
As I posted previously, I decided to read The 100 Best Novels, both the Board's list and the Reader's List. Well, I was derailed with my first selection, Ulysses by James Joyce. This mountain of a book proved to be more than I could surmount. In my self deprivation of my ability to finish this continuous stream of thought explosion of James Joyce, I didn't pick up another of the top dawgs for a while. Then I, head bowed, turned back to my list of novels. Choosing, On the Road.
Let me preface this by saying, I'm not a book reviewer, I'm not a publisher, I'm not even grammatically correct all the time, but I'll lay out my pedantic thoughts and let you intern them as you see fit. For thus is the purpose of the internet...a collection of unwanted, illformed, self-deprecating thoughts of others, which you never intended to know.
The Review- On the Road
Set in the late 1940s, a writer by the name of Sal Paradise feels a stirring in his soul. One aided by the oft high and ever incorrigible new acquaintance, Dean Moriarty. With simple goodbye to his gal and loan from his aunt, he takes to the road with hopes of hitchhiking and stowing his way from New York to San Francisco and back again.
He writes of interesting traveling companions, changing weather, and his constant bar hopping and skirt chasing. Relationships are won and lost and music is a continual theme. He leaves hoping for self realization, but merely gets homesick, and returns to New York, just to hear the calling of the road again.
He has a companion Dean, whom I could swear he was in love with, but I don't know how plausible that would be in the 40s. He spoke of him with such regard and emotion as Dean played upon his pseudo intelligence. I found myself disgusted with Dean's constant infidelities, laziness, and lechery. His constant taking advantage of his friends and conning those he encountered. A blatant disregard for anything but himself and getting his kicks. I wonder if the author/narrator enjoyed portraying this character as a means to show how he wished he could live or what he truly valued. Then again, perhaps I'm the pseudo intellectual who has missed the point.
Overall I enjoyed the book, not one I would read again, but worth the read. The calling of adventure and oneness with the times has probably been in all our hearts. If it was only safe enough these days to attempt to hitch across the U.S. I'd think of giving it a try, but I wouldn't use this book as any guide. Kerouac was herald as the original beatnik. "A gone dude out see the world and get his kicks, dig." I guess I could see myself in his character, that of Sal Paradise, but found that of Dean and the interaction interesting. One who has opportunity and education does not seek to find out everything, but finds complacency in his bubble. One who has a disregard for authority, a rejection from society, and inability to stay put searches the world for good times and metaphysical explanation. The dichotomy of the two and how their paths intertwine. Can you Dig?
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