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hannahpachet_ 's review for:
On the Road
by Jack Kerouac
I think this might be the worst book I’ve ever read. As a historical artifact, sure it has its uses — the response from readers at the time it was published tell us about that period. But as a book, something that is intended to be enjoyed??? I wouldn’t wish this on anybody.
There are SO many reasons why I hated On The Road. The most obvious is probably that I did not like the prose whatsoever. The book was originally written by Kerouac to explain to his wife what he did with Neal Cassady in their youth, and it absolutely reads like that. It’s 300 pages of rambling dialogue, repetitive language, and dull explanations about a series of road trips. There was no real plot, because it was essentially an autobiographical story about a period of the author’s life, not about any event in particular. I’m not a plot-driven reader, but I also happened to despise the main characters, who would have been the saving grace.
A couple other things I had issues with included but were not limited to:
- Casual racism, both in language, behaviours, and statements. At one point, there was also a scene where the (white) narrator seemed to romanticize segregation because he apparently grew jealous while wandering through a Black neighbourhood. This wasn’t the only moment where the narration completely disregarded the very real challenges that people of colour faced in the 1940s/50s and instead wrote their experiences in a positive light, and I winced every time it occurred.
- Sexism and misogyny — at one point, the narrator wanted to have sex with a woman who he knew (and was not in a relationship with). She had originally seemed like she reciprocated the feeling, but decided not to and left him, and later that night, slept with another man. This lead to her being called a whore on multiple occasions. The two main characters also sexualized a 13 year old, 15 year old, and 16 year old girl, within about 15 pages.
“But Hannah, the book is a product of its time! You can’t blame it for this.” I can, actually, because there are plenty of interesting, non-racist, non-sexist books that I could have read instead. There is nothing that this book taught me about mid-century America that I hadn’t already learned. The only thing I really took away from it was that young men have always used their youth as an excuse to wreak havoc. This book is said to be a quintessential road trip novel that gives a great depiction of youthfulness but as a 21-year old, all I could think about was how these were the type of people I avoid at all costs when I meet them.
Anyway! Hope my professor appreciates the fact that I actually finished every page of this book, because the amount of times I considered DNFing it outnumber the amount of times that Dean abandoned a wife!
There are SO many reasons why I hated On The Road. The most obvious is probably that I did not like the prose whatsoever. The book was originally written by Kerouac to explain to his wife what he did with Neal Cassady in their youth, and it absolutely reads like that. It’s 300 pages of rambling dialogue, repetitive language, and dull explanations about a series of road trips. There was no real plot, because it was essentially an autobiographical story about a period of the author’s life, not about any event in particular. I’m not a plot-driven reader, but I also happened to despise the main characters, who would have been the saving grace.
A couple other things I had issues with included but were not limited to:
- Casual racism, both in language, behaviours, and statements. At one point, there was also a scene where the (white) narrator seemed to romanticize segregation because he apparently grew jealous while wandering through a Black neighbourhood. This wasn’t the only moment where the narration completely disregarded the very real challenges that people of colour faced in the 1940s/50s and instead wrote their experiences in a positive light, and I winced every time it occurred.
- Sexism and misogyny — at one point, the narrator wanted to have sex with a woman who he knew (and was not in a relationship with). She had originally seemed like she reciprocated the feeling, but decided not to and left him, and later that night, slept with another man. This lead to her being called a whore on multiple occasions. The two main characters also sexualized a 13 year old, 15 year old, and 16 year old girl, within about 15 pages.
“But Hannah, the book is a product of its time! You can’t blame it for this.” I can, actually, because there are plenty of interesting, non-racist, non-sexist books that I could have read instead. There is nothing that this book taught me about mid-century America that I hadn’t already learned. The only thing I really took away from it was that young men have always used their youth as an excuse to wreak havoc. This book is said to be a quintessential road trip novel that gives a great depiction of youthfulness but as a 21-year old, all I could think about was how these were the type of people I avoid at all costs when I meet them.
Anyway! Hope my professor appreciates the fact that I actually finished every page of this book, because the amount of times I considered DNFing it outnumber the amount of times that Dean abandoned a wife!