On The Road - Jack Kerouac BOOK REVIEW

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[mvitti]

I read this book in my early twenties and it was a great inspiration. It motivated me to step outside my comfortable surroundings and explore the world with some intensity so I could feel alive again. I've read a few reviews of the book but yours is the only one that manages to capture my exact feelings about it.

[sallyparadise]

Can't believe i'm finding this two years later, but still as grateful to have stumbled across it. It feels like i'm listening to one of Jack Kerouac's friends talking about him!

[Kevo]

Kerouac's On The Road - the book has the rhythm and energy of a train running right through it... I can still feel the warmth on my skin from those descriptions of sunsets, blue skies and air full of bugs and water.

[toddivary]

I read On the Road first in my early 20s, and all I wanted to do was hitchhike across America. I then reread it in my late 30s, and just thought, why don't you just get a damn job.
Still a great book.
Dharma Bums is Kerouac's best book. I still want to go live in the woods and meditate, because of it.

[TeatroGrotesco]

"Had a few friends like that. One of them is dead now."
The danger of burning twice as bright.

[christopherpaul]

This book inspired me to pick up reading again and become a writer. It's one of the best books I've ever read.

[WhatelsecouldIsayhomey]

I read "On the Road" when I was 17. Because I wasn't mature enough mentally and socially, I about destroyed my life with the ideas I picked up from that novel and from Rimbaud and Morrison. I read "On the Road" multiple times in my late teens and early 20's then ended up as an English major with an alcohol problem, along with a shaky work history that took until I was in my 30's to get over. Other factors influenced me as well at that time when I was a teenager, ofc: Grunge Rock, etc. I couldn't see through the marketing and thought Grunge and Beat literature were "deep" and real.

[cebolaameaca]

12:52 Phenomenal review, and i think that's the point. I think Kerouac intended this book to not necessarily dissuade others from this lifestyle but to focus on the spirituality of life, and the essence of living in the moment. That's the "it" they were trying to find, and the drugs, alcohol, and women were the false truth that promised it but never got you there. It's my favorite book for this reason

[scottmoore]

As a 55 year old sales rep. I had heard of the book but never knew much about it. Glad I read and listened to your review which was spot on. Thanks

[elizabethfranceschini]

Maybe you could do a bookshelf tour sometime? :)


Keep up the great content!

[user]

That book is my bible. Since somebody gave me 30 years ago I've read several times. It changed my mind and my life as that who gave me advertised. Now I'm in my 15th year of my own trip, trying the taste of the road, working in my art, living day by day with a unusual intensity. Some days (so many) it's a hell, but some others I'm happy to have decided the "option B" in my life. I needed a radical change in my life and I did it. That's not a weekend trip, that's not a summer holidays, that's not a easy life (being something as a outsider never is) but the "option A" meant to die. I had to choose and chose to sacrify almost everything to feel that life can be more interesting than work, get married, have children and being in a reasonably comfortable ignorance.

Thanks to J.K. or to my old friend.

[stephaniepaul]

I read this book for a class in my senior year of college or else I may not have read it and missed one of the great influences of my life. That was in 1972, three years after he died. I went on to read a number of his books and works by many of the people he mentions in his books. A couple of weeks ago I came across an audio book here on youtube and thought I'd revisit Sal and Neal, 50 years later. Joseph Pittman who narrates the book does a fabulous job and reads it like Kerouac intended it to be, like a free form jazz session. He reads fast, gives all the characters different voices, and together they are like the band laying down the rhythm and the beat and then Dean steps forward with his "Yes, yes, dig that cat, go man go" solos until it builds to a crescendo then a break and back to the steady
rhythm and beat until the next solo. I am more impressed now than I was back then. Give it a listen and it might change your world.

[michaelball]

one of the best reviews of; on the road. indifferent, incoherent in structure, lucid, brilliant, and ambivalence tinged with love. perfect.

[jesseshorter]

I'd been living that life for a couple of years with absolutely no knowledge of Kerouac or On The Road when I walked into a bookstore in Florence Italy and picked it up. I've used it as something of a bible ever since, I do agree though that reality has to come back occasionally.

[giorgigorisa]

Love your review. kerouac was full of life, and his books are full of life. On the road is my favourite because when I read it I feel that I live and experience everything that was and that should be in future that I have to experience as long as I'm alive..

[dashbustour]

Big Sur is Kerouac's flip side to On the Road.

Very good as well.

Hope you enjoy Detroit!

[stephanegoutte]

I couldn't agree more - Kerouac's descriptions of jazz concerts are incredible - he is so close to what Jazz is...

[henriquecslopes]

I was hoping that there was a review made by you, sir. I've just finished "on the road" and, damn. It talked to me in a very personal level, maybe because I never had the courage to live life at its fullest, or whatever. Amazing review as usual.

[theoldbasser]

Good review. The improvisational nature of Jazz inspired Kerouac, and all the Beats really, and helps explain the improvisational feel of On The Road. I agree completely that the best parts of the book are the descriptions of jazz being played.

[thewayfarer]

I've always wanted you to cover this book. I found your channel while reading All My Friends Are Going To Be Strangers (my favourite book), and that 'American Writer Retrospective' genre always pulls me in. Thanks very much