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Fabian's Reviews > On the Road
On the Road
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Herein lies that gnarly root of our all-American Sense of Entitlement. Coupling this with "Huck Finn" as THE quintessential American Novel is One Enormous mistake: Twain at least entertains, at least follows through with his intention, with his American take on the Quixotean legend; Kerouac might just be the biggest literary quack of the 20th century! The book is awkward, structured not as ONE single trip, but composed of a few coast-to-coast coastings, all having to do with this overused motif.
I despise it. (Living in Denver, Kerouactown, makes me hate him more!) A tale of a closeted individual who really has nothing to say. He has glorified a ruffian (DEAN DEAN DEAN... DEAN!) whose selfishness sits well with him. What Sal does say, however, ever so dully, is just how Cool those around him are, how his only addition to this incomprehensible BEAT movement is as lame as those of a newspaper photographer: he sees and reports, jots idle musings down. What he fails to understand (the main guy is not even YOUNG... [he is old & stupid, desperate & pathetic]!!!) is how entirely false this sense of freedom can be: Can a sheep really outwit the shepherd? Here's a supreme example of the blind leading... I sternly refuse to follow such idiotic drivel. This is a book for followers written by a Conformist, for one can always be some selfproclaimed comfortable conformist of nonconformism.
Nothing sticks. Everything "On the Road" is transitory, & although this works fine in the everyday, in Literature its seen as nothing more than a burden: a plotless restlessness to achieve permanence without that crucial element: mainly, the artist's virtue of Talent.
I despise it. (Living in Denver, Kerouactown, makes me hate him more!) A tale of a closeted individual who really has nothing to say. He has glorified a ruffian (DEAN DEAN DEAN... DEAN!) whose selfishness sits well with him. What Sal does say, however, ever so dully, is just how Cool those around him are, how his only addition to this incomprehensible BEAT movement is as lame as those of a newspaper photographer: he sees and reports, jots idle musings down. What he fails to understand (the main guy is not even YOUNG... [he is old & stupid, desperate & pathetic]!!!) is how entirely false this sense of freedom can be: Can a sheep really outwit the shepherd? Here's a supreme example of the blind leading... I sternly refuse to follow such idiotic drivel. This is a book for followers written by a Conformist, for one can always be some selfproclaimed comfortable conformist of nonconformism.
Nothing sticks. Everything "On the Road" is transitory, & although this works fine in the everyday, in Literature its seen as nothing more than a burden: a plotless restlessness to achieve permanence without that crucial element: mainly, the artist's virtue of Talent.
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Reading Progress
May 27, 2011
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Started Reading
May 27, 2011
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June 3, 2011
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Finished Reading
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Fabian
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rated it 2 stars
May 27, 2011 05:36PM
I wonder: is Liana right? Is it too late for me to "dig" this?
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Just finish it. Maybe you'll end up liking it.
Have you seen "HOWL?" with James Franco? Watch it-I loved it (but I love the Beats and the poem) It will put the book in perspective.
Yeah: bottom line, there is SO MUCH OTHER literature to get one's hands on. So little time. Seriously.
Too true, Fabian. It's fun when you're a kid, but, yeah, that sucker doesn't age well at all. Kind of like Kerouac himself!
I remember my dad telling me that he'd read it when he was young -- probably around the time it came out, in 1957 -- and thought it was great, but that when he reread it recently for a book group, in his 70's, he thought it was just rambling and obnoxious. Sounds as if it was very much a book for a particular time and age group -- I wonder why it has had such staying power?
Melora wrote: "I remember my dad telling me that he'd read it when he was young -- probably around the time it came out, in 1957 -- and thought it was great, but that when he reread it recently for a book group, ..."It was undeniably important for the time period. It WAS something new in the middle-50s; an attempt to contain the lightning of Jazz on page and a prolonged rejection of the then status quo. I think that after all these years, the writing is allowed to be judged outside of that context and just doesn't stand the mettle or scrutiny that timelessness now affords it.
Melora wrote: "I remember my dad telling me that he'd read it when he was young -- probably around the time it came out, in 1957 -- and thought it was great, but that when he reread it recently for a book group, ..."Oh, and sorry (regarding your last point): reputation preceding actual quality. It is one of those books that you are supposed to like as it was at the vanguard of fiction once upon a time. You are supposed to like, say, 1984, or you are a cretin. The difference, of course, is that Orwell could actually write his ass off and didn't hide behind the ramalama of a very specific cultural zeitgeist.
The cruellest thing you can do to Kerouac is reread him at thirty-eight. from The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi
Cody wrote: "Melora wrote: "I remember my dad telling me that he'd read it when he was young -- probably around the time it came out, in 1957 -- and thought it was great, but that when he reread it recently for..."Thank you -- you explain it well. There should be a name for the category of books which were important for some reason in a particular period but which lacked any qualities which might have made them classics. Like The Catcher in the Rye and Stranger in a Strange Land, though I suppose that reaching consensus on this list would be as hard as agreeing on the "classics." I need to reread 1984 one of these days.
Melora wrote: "Cody wrote: "Melora wrote: "I remember my dad telling me that he'd read it when he was young -- probably around the time it came out, in 1957 -- and thought it was great, but that when he reread it..."Yeah, probably impossible. I, too, have little patience for Catcher, but I understand its contextual importance. But that doesn't mean I have to like it! :)
I enjoyed this at 17, but I see what you're saying.
I'd say the all-American Sense of Entitlement began with the belief in Manifest Destiny, "a city upon a hill" and Emerson's abhorrently selfish and myopic idea of self-reliance. All of that got exacerbated by consumerism and the growth of the middle class. But what do I know, I'm not American. In any case, I think this book would be an effect, not a cause.
I agree. He is also very misogynistic and extremely self obsessed. I do think that there were real nonconformists within the Beat movement, but they were at NYU and Columbia and they exposed many of the inconsistencies and racism at the heart of the 1950's suburban conformity.
Cody wrote: "Melora wrote: "I remember my dad telling me that he'd read it when he was young -- probably around the time it came out, in 1957 -- and thought it was great, but that when he reread it recently for..."Wholeheartedly YES!
Jeanette wrote: "Splendid review. Spot on!" Thank you! f
couldn't agree more :)
Truman Capote said about On the Road, "That's not writing. That's typing." I read it in my 20's and was not impressed.
Fabian has missed the point, several of them in fact. The reason certain books are remembered is only in part owing to their content but far beyond that to what they do to redefine exploratory fiction, part of the reason that Kerouac's On the Road has never been out of print, probably never will be & is read by countless folks around the world, even if not all of them fully embrace the book. The same could be said for the works of Rimbaud, Gautier & the other so-called "decadent poets", who are also still studied for the literary impact they had. As to Denver in Colorado being "Kerouac town", that would come as a surprise to many who knew him in Lowell, Mass. or at Columbia University or elsewhere in Manhattan or to Newport, NY on Long Island where he lived for a long time, especially at "Gunther's" where Jack K. often drank to excess.
To many readers, Kerouac & others of the Beat Generation were about a certain freedom of expression that is now common but quite uncommon in that earlier era. On the Road is hardy meant to serve as a formula for life. Rather, for many readers, Kerouac's lifestyle is condemned while his mode of expression is nevertheless lauded.
I couldn't agree more, I only managed 3/4 of it.
I am curious, after reading your review, why you gave it two stars instead of one!
I brought this with me on a multi-country trip thinking it would be a perfect read for travel...what a regrettable decision. I can’t believe I hauled all .25# of this in my small travel backpack only to open it up on a train and spiral into disappointment.
Pretty sure I remember reading a snippet of this in college and it did nothing for me whatsoever
Everyone do yourselves a favor and just read ED SANDERS. A contemporary Beat with talent like a sun AND equal staying power. And he was in The Fugs!!!
I hated it too. Fully agree with you.
You are right: He has nothing to say, it is a very boring book.
AMEN TO THIS REVIEW
