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3.28 AVERAGE
3.28 AVERAGE
I wanted to like this more than I did. I love stream of consciousness, the style of the book, but it just felt like it was retelling the same 30 page story over and over 10 times.
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Solid: repetitive, but good commentary on hippies and priority of intellectualism over stability
Gave it 150 pages. Was bored out of my mind. Clearly not for me.
adventurous
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Having read this some 40 years ago and LOVING it, I was looking forward to revisiting.
Sigh.
It's true - you can't go home again. I'm not the same person I was then. These characters (these people) are no longer fascinating and charming and exciting to me. Dean is a horrible person and a bore. I'm sorry to lose them, but honestly... tear-assing back and forth across the country in stolen cars leaving ex-wives and babies willy-nilly in his wake? Not the kind of person I'd really care to meet.
Not anymore.
It's still a great read, a fascinating look at a "gone" culture, but I can't love it anymore.
Sigh.
It's true - you can't go home again. I'm not the same person I was then. These characters (these people) are no longer fascinating and charming and exciting to me. Dean is a horrible person and a bore. I'm sorry to lose them, but honestly... tear-assing back and forth across the country in stolen cars leaving ex-wives and babies willy-nilly in his wake? Not the kind of person I'd really care to meet.
Not anymore.
It's still a great read, a fascinating look at a "gone" culture, but I can't love it anymore.
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
adventurous
emotional
funny
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This is such a strange book, and I was assigned it for class so I finished it mostly out of an obligation. There are some parts that I found charming and interesting, but I was mostly just... concerned? Not appalled - I got the point - I just didn't think the point that was being made was really worth making. It feels like a very encompassed and interesting product of its time worth studying, but not worth praising.
I'm not going to go into depth on the events of this book because they're exceptionally convoluted: basically, Jack Kerouac gets tired of his urban, white, middle-class lifestyle and attempts to effectively redefine himself by seeking out his own twisted fantasy of being a low-class minority patriarchal figure while also being fully aware of his social empowerment due to his whiteness and his educated background. Looking at it from a modern lens, it is racist in the most brutally uneducated way. That's what I derived from this book the most: I cringed at a good chunk of the points where he gets most "within himself" on his pursuit of this goal, and also the fact that he's literally only able to do this whole thing because his rich Long Island aunt is constantly wiring him money for all of his various affairs. It's so blatantly not-charming that it made most of the events of the book feel like a slog.
He might have been a pretty shitty person, and that might have influenced my opinion - I'm not sure - but I did not like Jack Kerouac's book.
I'm not going to go into depth on the events of this book because they're exceptionally convoluted: basically, Jack Kerouac gets tired of his urban, white, middle-class lifestyle and attempts to effectively redefine himself by seeking out his own twisted fantasy of being a low-class minority patriarchal figure while also being fully aware of his social empowerment due to his whiteness and his educated background. Looking at it from a modern lens, it is racist in the most brutally uneducated way. That's what I derived from this book the most: I cringed at a good chunk of the points where he gets most "within himself" on his pursuit of this goal, and also the fact that he's literally only able to do this whole thing because his rich Long Island aunt is constantly wiring him money for all of his various affairs. It's so blatantly not-charming that it made most of the events of the book feel like a slog.
He might have been a pretty shitty person, and that might have influenced my opinion - I'm not sure - but I did not like Jack Kerouac's book.