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A review by timburbage
The Road by Jack London
3.0
I really enjoy reading Jack London, and will still continue to read anything I find that he has written. His style is quick and effervescent, and his colloquialisms give a very strong voice. Also, he was just a super interesting dude who lived a super interesting life.
This book covers his times being a hobo and crossing the united states. Each chapter (I think there are 9) is a different story of how he ended up in jail for 30 days, or how he kept chasing another hobo across different trains. His final story is actually how he started being a hobo, and why he did it. Each story in itself was fairly interesting, but there was little no throughput from one story to the next. They weren't told in any order, and there was no narrative running through them.
Also, there was a lot of talk about different kinds of train. Like, a lot. He wrote about how he would jump on/in any different kinds of train coaches, and I still don't understand what any of it means.
I'm glad I read it, as Jack London is super interesting to me, but I wouldn't recommend it unless you love that hobo lifestyle, Jack London, or maybe you just love trains.
Also, there is a fair amount of racist language used, but I put that down to the time it was written, rather than Jack London being overtly racist in his story telling.
This book covers his times being a hobo and crossing the united states. Each chapter (I think there are 9) is a different story of how he ended up in jail for 30 days, or how he kept chasing another hobo across different trains. His final story is actually how he started being a hobo, and why he did it. Each story in itself was fairly interesting, but there was little no throughput from one story to the next. They weren't told in any order, and there was no narrative running through them.
Also, there was a lot of talk about different kinds of train. Like, a lot. He wrote about how he would jump on/in any different kinds of train coaches, and I still don't understand what any of it means.
I'm glad I read it, as Jack London is super interesting to me, but I wouldn't recommend it unless you love that hobo lifestyle, Jack London, or maybe you just love trains.
Also, there is a fair amount of racist language used, but I put that down to the time it was written, rather than Jack London being overtly racist in his story telling.