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I'm just finishing On the Road. My impressions of it are somewhat mixed. When I started it, the language was so free and beautiful that I thought it was the bes
by julienchastang 5y ago
I'm just finishing On the Road. My impressions of it are somewhat mixed. When I started it, the language was so free and beautiful that I thought it was the best thing I had ever read. But then I found the celebration of alcoholism and substance abuse tedious. There are parts I found frustrating such as when Sal goes to New Orleans to visit Old Bull Lee (William S. Burroughs), but doesn't really describe the city which must have been pretty cool in 1947 before the hyper-tourism of today. Some of the conversations between Sal and Dean are really touching and some of my favorite parts of the book like when Dean talks about his outlaw father. He also brings Denver to life which I enjoyed. There are funny parts as when he takes on a job as a security guard in SF, the most unlikely of jobs for Sal Paradise.
- tppiotrowski 5y agoAgree. But no author captures the sense of euphoria like Kerouac. Reading his prose can sometimes put you into a euphoric frenzy. But he will drag you down with him at times as well.
- verisimi 5y ago> But no author captures the sense of euphoria like Kerouac. In that book only.
- cassepipe 5y agoI personnaly did not like the book and found enjoying Scott Alexander's review quite a lot : https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/12/02/book-review-on-the-road/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/12/02/book-review-on-the-roa...
- thatjoeoverthr 5y agoThis review is brutal, I love it. > On The Road is, most importantly, a picture of a high-trust society collapsing. And it’s collapsing precisely because the book’s protagonists are going around defecting against everyone they meet It’s like the old cliche, “this is why we can’t have nice things.”
- MrBuddyCasino 5y agoIn that case you might enjoy this one: https://extradeadjcb.substack.com/p/3-the-electric-kool-aid-acid-test https://extradeadjcb.substack.com/p/3-the-electric-kool-aid-...
- Amezarak 5y agoThis review is perfect. I have always been totally and completely baffled by why people liked Kerouac and Ginsburg and company. They are awful people who go around doing incredibly awful things to everyone around them and they glorify it in writing. The writing isn't even good, you can find lots of people doing the same stuff able to write ecstatic justifications of it. It says almost as much about the period (and the present day, I suppose), that these people could be held up as icons of anything except examples of people who society should probably imprison or exile or something.
- freetime2 5y agoI read both On The Road and The Dharma Bums as a student, when I was trying to figure out what to do with my life. I didn’t like On The Road much at all - I found the characters to be wildly irresponsible to the point of being just plain mean. But for some reason I decided to give Kerouac another go with The Dharma Bums, and it has probably had a bigger influence on my life than any other book. Not so much because of the Buddhist concepts, which I didn’t care much about then, and still don’t, and Kerouac probably got wrong anyway. But the Bhuddist-lite concepts of appreciating nature, minimalism, independence, love, etc - experienced through the eyes of a very flawed main character who is just looking to find some peace and happiness in life - all really resonated with me and left a lasting impression. It would be fun to read that book again after so many years and see if it still resonates.