“I'm not quite sure whether I can recommend this book or not. I really appreciated the story Kerouac wanted to tell but I didn't like his style of writing at all. Due to the fact that I read this book in german it would be possible that I just had a bad translating but I think the point is that his way of writing in regard to the narrative abilities did not satisfy me. It seems to me as if Kerouac was not able to decide how to tell the different “scenes“ of the travel so that he often begins with introducing a story as if something like this happens every day and than pushing it up to the best thing that ever happened in the next sentence and the other way round.So all in all I'm not sure how to handle this book, but due to the fact that the style of writing made it impossible to me to enjoy the story and the way of telling at the same time I unfortunately tend to not recommending this book.”
“Best paragraph in UK article:When I was a teenager, though, On the Road was the bible for any aspiring bohemian, a book that was passed on from one generation to the next almost as a talismanic text. I was given a battered copy by an older friend and, even before I read it, knew that it carried within its pages some deep, abiding truth about youth, freedom and self-determination. On the Road instilled in me a belief that, in order to find oneself, one had to throw caution to the wind and travel long distances with no real goal and very little money.”
“Rubbish! I can already hear the flush the toliet will make...”
“I'm loving this book and I decided to use google maps to make a map of Jack's trip around America. If anyone is interested: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF&msa=0&msid=114708872695086317748.00045ef6acc2b9dfc4c86”
“A time slice. Something that could never happen today. A portrait of people the way Kerouac saw them. Not an attempt to make likable characters to sell books. Uniquely captures the naivety of post war America. The Dharma bums is another attempt at the same story. Read together you almost get an idea what Kerouac was trying to say. I have read a lot of his work but I can't say I liked or disliked any of them. They are what you read. Its like air. You breath it because your alive. On the Road you read because your a reader. ”
“No other book has had a greater influence on my life. It inspired me to travel and just absorb life rather than coast by.”
“If you live in NYC you should check this out: http://shelfari.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/03/on-the-roadagai.html”
“If you've read it once and want to re-read it you don't really need to buy the Anniversay addition (unless you are buying it for part of a person library or something)”
“I wish I would have read this the year it was published. I was not alive, but I constantly wonder what it would have been like to pick up a book by Kerouac during the time where writers took themselves too seriously.”
“Try getting the newly published, unedited scroll version of the book. You get the feel of how Kerouac wanted that book to be read.”
