The Greatest Road Trip of All-A Review of "On The Road"

Book Title: On The Road
Author: Jack Kerouac
Version: Paperback
ISBN: 9780140042597
Voice: First Person
Publisher: Viking Press
First Published: 1957
Number of Pages: 307


SYNOPSIS: This is a semi-autobiographical story of Jack Kerouac. The narrator and main character is Sal Paradise a recently divorced man who meets Dean Moriarty a carefree, wild, and utterly intriguing wanderer who promises to introduce quiet Sal to the wide world. Dean takes Sal to New York and introduces him to the wide slightly underground world of the poets and writers that eventually become inspiration for Sal. From New York Sal sets off on his own traveling around and running into slightly off kilter characters that give more color to Sal's once dull life.

Eventually Sal ends up in Denver with Dean and poet Carl Marx. There are parties and adventures galore but Sal is still searching for something and so heads to San Francisco. There he meets up with Remi Boncoeur and his girlfriend Lee Ann and hangs around long enough for Remi to get Sal a job. Although Sal is grateful for the money and the job he doesn't stick around for long. He leaves his job and San Francisco behind and once more hits the road. On the bus to Los Angeles he meets Terry with whom he falls in love and she takes him to Sabinal, Mexico her hometown and introduces him to her brother. Sal begins to work in their cotton fields and learn from Ricky, Terry's brother, but quickly discovers he isn't cut out for that type of work. Leaving Terry behind he sets out for life on the road once more, searching for adventure and meaning.

Continuing to travel all around the country sometimes meeting up with Dean and whoever his girlfriend or wife is at the time and sometimes going off on his own Sal finds that life on the road isn't something that can easily be stopped. The book goes on for five parts with Sal moving from place to place and adventure to adventure.

REVIEW: This was the first 'beat' book that I read and I fell in love with it. I fell in love with Jack Kerouac beacause of this book. As I said before this book is supposed to be semi-autobiographical with Sal Paradise representing Jack, Dean Moriarty representing Neal Cassidy, and Carl Marx standing in for Allen Ginsberg. Most of the stories that are told are based on real events that happened to Jack. I find that the reality of it makes the book so much better in my opinion. The idea that the man that wrote the book actually went through what some of the characters in the book went through is almost a high. There's just something about it that makes it more tangible and delicious even.

The writing style is flowing, it just moves so easiy across the pages. It's a little difficult to get into the groove of it at first but once you do it's hard to get out of. There is definitely a very unique style to the 'beat' writing and Jack Kerouac is the epitome of that style. It's part rambling prose and part poetry which for the stories that were told was the perfect mixture. It's not really something that can be described it is a style of writing that has to be experienced.

The truth of this book, which I think should be considered a classic, is that it really does need to be read to be appreciated. "On The Road" is one long love letter to a life of adventure and the search for meaning. It is a love letter that should be read and savored again and again. I truly fell in love with this book when I read it and I went in search of more 'beat' writings that I could fall in love with. I hope that you go out and find a copy of "On the Road" by Jack Kerouac and get lost in a brand new world that not many people enter. It's a little bit of a strange world that some may really not enjoy but you'll never know until you give it a try. And this is the perfect introduction to that world because it is an excellent story and amazingly written. I hope that you go out and find a copy of the book and give it a try. I think that this is very much worth your time. It's an awesome book and the start of an adventure that could last a lifetime, a love for a new genre and really a whole new experience.