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A review by apechild
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
4.0
2008 bookcrossing ponderings: I did enjoy this book, it is a great read, but I started reading it during my Christmas holidays, and I was at the point where I really just wanted to get it finished - so I sat and finished it off this evening.
It's set during the 50s in the States, and is about a friendship between Sal Paradise (the narrator) and Dean Moriarty; from beginning to end, spanning over several years. Their's is a travelling friendship, seeing trips from the east to west and finally down to Mexico; stopping off in towns along the way, meeting friends, having parties, taking drugs, drinking, listening to jazz etc etc... The travelling did come over in many cases as idyllic; particularly the first trip Sal takes on his own to get over to San Francisco - just hitchhiking his way, meeting all these interesting people, hobos etc, and never a worry of any nasty characters you might meet hitchhiking: it's as if things like that weren't a problem then.
Dean was a character. Very intense, and very high maintenance. I can imagine it would have been exhausting spending any amount of time with him! He seemed to have a short attention span and always needed excitment - hence the chopping and changing between his three wifes. And what would happen to a character like him in the end?
Some things I didn't connect with so well... I remember there being a long passage about a trumpet player in a jazz club and how he was playing. My attention did glaze over a bit in that!
But reading this is like going on a long journey yourself; joining them on all the road trips, and also to a different period in time.
It's set during the 50s in the States, and is about a friendship between Sal Paradise (the narrator) and Dean Moriarty; from beginning to end, spanning over several years. Their's is a travelling friendship, seeing trips from the east to west and finally down to Mexico; stopping off in towns along the way, meeting friends, having parties, taking drugs, drinking, listening to jazz etc etc... The travelling did come over in many cases as idyllic; particularly the first trip Sal takes on his own to get over to San Francisco - just hitchhiking his way, meeting all these interesting people, hobos etc, and never a worry of any nasty characters you might meet hitchhiking: it's as if things like that weren't a problem then.
Dean was a character. Very intense, and very high maintenance. I can imagine it would have been exhausting spending any amount of time with him! He seemed to have a short attention span and always needed excitment - hence the chopping and changing between his three wifes. And what would happen to a character like him in the end?
Some things I didn't connect with so well... I remember there being a long passage about a trumpet player in a jazz club and how he was playing. My attention did glaze over a bit in that!
But reading this is like going on a long journey yourself; joining them on all the road trips, and also to a different period in time.