Review - On The Road by Jack Kerouac

On the Road by Jack Kerouac

Viking Press, September 5 1957

307 pages

Hipster Beatniks be damned. “One The Road” chronicles Jack Kerouac’s (albeit under the guise of Sal Paradise) travels across America living the life of the Beat generation. Accompanying him on his many journeys is his pal, the fast talking life loving Dean Moriarty. The thing that sets this book apart from many of the other books I’ve read is that it isn’t technically fiction. It uses the classic crime drama tune the names have been changed to protect the innocent.

While the book follows Sal all over the country I found some of my favorite parts were when he was in the Central Valley California. Call me sappy but it was amazing to hear about what both my home town and the area in general were like in the late 1940s. I have to say, for as much as Fresno has changed it hasn’t lost much of that feeling.

In fact, most of the places that Sal and crew ventured to that I’ve had the good fortune to visit maintain the same spirit they did in the book. What’s the saying “No matter how much things change they always stay the same.”

As the book progressed I found myself wondering what the points of these stories were. At the end of each section you barely got an idea that anyone gained any understanding or learned a lesson. But then I sat back and began to think, maybe that was the point. Is there really a lesson to be learned in life? Why can’t we just live and love without having to slow our roles and grow up?

Like Demetri Martin said in one of his stand up shows “Life is a series of ifs added up over time.” That is the universal feeling I got out of the book, that it is the sum of all of his experiences that will eventually shape his character.

So I guess that’s what appealed most about this book to me. I’m sure other people have different interpretations and most of them go back specifically to the Beat generation. But I’m a rebel, I’m different. I don’t think it just defines the Beat, I think it can be interpreted to the spirit of youth and how in a way we are who we are. We all have friends like Dean Moriarty who’s kind of a douchebag. And Old Bull Lee asking us what we’re after in life. In the end aren’t we all Sal Paradise in a way? We’re all trying to find our place in the world and want to have fun while we do it.

10/10 I dig it. This is a very thought provoking book

*Note: So next week we're going to review "On The Bro'd". The parody novel to this book. I started reading excerpts on Tumblr which is cool and shit but it definitely has a different feel than Jack Kerouac's story. Since they are based on the same idea but approached in such different ways, we're going to do a compare and contrast to see if Bro'd conveys the same message as Road did 60 years ago.