List Price: $16.00Amazon.com's Price: $10.88 You Save: $5.12 (32%)as of 11/23/2009 15:18 EST
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
This item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping.
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780140283297
Edition: 1
ISBN: 0140283293
Label: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 304
Publication Date: June 01, 1999
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Studio: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Features:
Related Items:
Alternate Versions: Click to Display
Browse for similar items by category: Click to Display
Editorial Review:
Amazon.com 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 fictionalized autobiography, filled with a cast made of Kerouac's real life friends, lovers, and fellow travelers. Narrated by Sal Paradise, one of Kerouac's alter-egos, On the Road is a cross-country bohemian odyssey that not only influenced writing in the years since its 1957 publication but penetrated into the deepest levels of American thought and culture.
Product Description:
First published in 1957, this novel epitomized to the world the Beat philosophy. It chronicles a spontaneous and wandering life style founded both on jazz and drug-induced visions.
Average Rating: 
Rating: -
This product arrived in good condition and i find it acceptable under my circumstances.Ralph Waldo Emerson: Selected Essays, Lectures and Poems
Rating:  -
Touted as one of the classic pieces of literature of the 20th century, I was expecting more than ramblings of a group of Bohemian kids with little purpose in life. The point of the book missed me completely. Perhaps, it is because better stuff has been published since that time. Maybe you had to be there. As an icon to a decade, there was little in the text that was peculiar to that time. Furthermore, the author laid no foundation by portraying convential life in the 40's, leaving no opportunity for the contrast to appear. The writing itself was poetic, rhymic, and at times creative. That rescued a star in my book. On the other hand, I wouldn't waste my time with it again and I would really be ticked off if I had to read it as part of a college class.
Rating:  -
Those last two recent reviewers I've just read didn't dig the book -that's fine! A lot of things that people like, and keep on about, don't appeal to me (The film Citizen Kane, football EVERY Saturday, Ernest Hemmingway, television, I could go on), that's how taste goes. I can only say that when I read On the Road back in 1962 it made me realise that I wasn't the only one who felt the way I did. That was part of it, but also it was like you know how people speak of reading the Bible should be - a revelation! Suddenly I wasn't alone with my pain in the world. The early 'Sixties were drab and boring (maybe everybody's mid-teenage years feel like that?), here were two guys escaping from that drab, boring, routine. Opening that book was like getting away from your teachers, the 9 to 5, the Straights who fitted into the grim routine and falling in with a hip gang who were just - nice to you!
Rating:  -
Reading this book is like driving upon a car accident--you just cant help yourself.
If you want to know TIME, then save your TIME and read something else. haha. Anyway, I thought the following review was exactly the way I felt and did not want anyone to miss reading it. Call me lazy but.. (all credit to uofm84 for writing it too) Enjoy...
1.0 out of 5 stars a little story, May 5, 2004
By "uofm84"
There once was an emperor who ruled over a great kingdom. One day, two tailors/book salesmen came to visit him. They told him about this glorious new novella "On the Road" by Jack Kerouac. They told him it was a barometer test for whether or not a person was intelligent. Anyone who liked "On the Road" was a genius, and anyone who disliked it a buffoon. Eager to prove how smart he was, the emperor quickly read the novella. When he was finished, he realized he was an idiot. Rather than being brilliant, he found the book to be a collection of insane ramblings and occurances that could only be interesting to Kerouac himself. It was about a man on a search for truth and meaning in the world, but he went about this by getting drunk and pretending that he liked poor people. However, when he saw true poor people in Mexico, he thought about how terrible it would be to be them. This made no sense. The philosophy for a better life was more vapid and meaningless than the life Sal was leading before Dean came around. Rather than changing the emperor's life, it made him long to have 4 hours of his life back. However, he was afraid to look like an idiot, and told the salesmen that it was the best book he had ever read. They were delighted, and told him he qualified for a special fabric...one that was invisible to everyone except those who loved "On the Road". The emperor couldn't see the fabric, but eagerly bought it. He then arranged for a public reading of "On the Road", and told the townspeople how only intelligent people liked the novella. The people all lined up to hear the reading. They thought the book was nonsense, but were afraid to say so. They pretended that the work was life altering, and that their ruler was actually clothed. Finally, a brave little boy in a tree shouted "This makes no sense. Dean isn't Jesus, he's a raging lunatic, and Sal isn't a disciple, he's just a fool. More importantly, why are you naked?"
Rating: -
It's a love or hate kind of book. Yes, it is groundbreaking for the generation of the beats. Yes, Kerouac wonderfully shows the alienation and the live-free-die-hard kind of lives his characters live. But no, it should not be considered a classic for all its incoherent, plot-less babble. Stream of consciousness is great only as long as its making a valid point. At least it should be entertaining. This book is boring as hell.
|
