On the road is a 1957 novel by American writer Jack Kerouac, based on his real-life story of traveling across the country (USA) with his friend Neal Cassady. This novel is considered as circumscribing work of post-war Beat and Counter-culture generation of writers, with its protagonists living their lives against ‘the life beyond of jazz, poetry, and drug addiction’.
Jack Kerouac is the main protagonist of Sal Paradise and another protagonist is Neal Cassady as Dean Moriarty. Sal Paradise who is young and innocent is falling back after his divorce. He finds his travel mate Dean who is occult, energetic, breathless, and care-free. He has a good sense of adventure and lives in his own conditions.
They both meet and travel across the United States of America with a hedonistic and peppy life-style. They fulfill their search for self-pleasure through drink, drugs, sex, and jazz. They make it an exploration of personal freedom and a test of the limits of the American Dream which eventually becomes the lifestyle of the American youth.
The novel is largely auto-biography with a hint of fiction. The story contains five parts, three-part of which explicitly define road trips with Dean Moriarty to San Francisco. In this first section of three parts, the author is describing the conflict going in his mind about love and the zest of freedom. The exciting sensation of living on the road with just fifty dollars in his pocket.
And, the second part circumscribes their travel and the differences with their multiple companions. Sal becomes more philosophical and begins to find greater happiness in the simple pleasures of life such as listening to basketball games and music. Then, they go around searching for Sal's lost and homeless father.
Review
The book ‘On the Road’ is a well-written dream of America’s new generation of the 1950s which was learning and adopting a carefree life with the use of drugs and exploring the meaning of self-pleasure. The book is maven and it is different from its times classic writing ideas.
It is a Roman á Clef with two protagonists including the narrator himself as Sal Paradise and his travel buddy Neal Cassady as Dean Moriarty. Other key characters of the road journey are William S. Burroughs as Old Bull Lee and Allen Ginsberg as Carlo Marx.
In the book, the narrator shares his emotional fizzling out and finding a breakthrough of what he was going through. He found the Americana dream of being carefree and be on the road without caring about anything. No family, no money, just live with that what comes in the way. Eventually, he realizes that it’s not the life he wants to live.
This book is a whip-smart blend of Auto-biography and fiction that races towards the sunset with unbeatable exuberance and passion. It is one of the most influential novels of the twentieth century that brought the Beat Generation and becomes a mile-stone of the literary movement.
It has changed my life as it has done for anyone else — Bob Dylan
The book received a mixed reaction from media and critiques of that time. Some of the reviews were highly positive towards the book, however, not appreciated widely. That was discouraging for Jack Kerouac. He still received great recognition and notoriety for this work.
The Time magazine chose the novel as one of the 100 best English Novels from 1923 to 2005
It stood 55th in Modern Library’s list of 100 Best English Language Novels of the 20th century.
Adaptation
The film rights were bought by producer Francis Ford Coppola in 1980 for $95000. Coppola tried out many screenwriters and directors before setting down with Walter Salles as director for making the documentary starred Sam Riley and Garret Hedlund for Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty respectively. The film was screened at Cannes Film Festival in 2012 and was nominated for the Palme d’Or.
In 2007, BBC Four aired the documentary ’American Road’ presented by Russell Brand and Matt Morgan inspired by Kerouac’s On the Road and It contained ample section of the original book. It was premiered at the AMFM Festival in California on 14 June 2013, when it won the award for Best Documentary.
Jack Kerouac is the main protagonist of Sal Paradise and another protagonist is Neal Cassady as Dean Moriarty. Sal Paradise who is young and innocent is falling back after his divorce. He finds his travel mate Dean who is occult, energetic, breathless, and care-free. He has a good sense of adventure and lives in his own conditions.
They both meet and travel across the United States of America with a hedonistic and peppy life-style. They fulfill their search for self-pleasure through drink, drugs, sex, and jazz. They make it an exploration of personal freedom and a test of the limits of the American Dream which eventually becomes the lifestyle of the American youth.
The novel is largely auto-biography with a hint of fiction. The story contains five parts, three-part of which explicitly define road trips with Dean Moriarty to San Francisco. In this first section of three parts, the author is describing the conflict going in his mind about love and the zest of freedom. The exciting sensation of living on the road with just fifty dollars in his pocket.
And, the second part circumscribes their travel and the differences with their multiple companions. Sal becomes more philosophical and begins to find greater happiness in the simple pleasures of life such as listening to basketball games and music. Then, they go around searching for Sal's lost and homeless father.
Review
The book ‘On the Road’ is a well-written dream of America’s new generation of the 1950s which was learning and adopting a carefree life with the use of drugs and exploring the meaning of self-pleasure. The book is maven and it is different from its times classic writing ideas.
It is a Roman á Clef with two protagonists including the narrator himself as Sal Paradise and his travel buddy Neal Cassady as Dean Moriarty. Other key characters of the road journey are William S. Burroughs as Old Bull Lee and Allen Ginsberg as Carlo Marx.
In the book, the narrator shares his emotional fizzling out and finding a breakthrough of what he was going through. He found the Americana dream of being carefree and be on the road without caring about anything. No family, no money, just live with that what comes in the way. Eventually, he realizes that it’s not the life he wants to live.
This book is a whip-smart blend of Auto-biography and fiction that races towards the sunset with unbeatable exuberance and passion. It is one of the most influential novels of the twentieth century that brought the Beat Generation and becomes a mile-stone of the literary movement.
It has changed my life as it has done for anyone else — Bob Dylan
The book received a mixed reaction from media and critiques of that time. Some of the reviews were highly positive towards the book, however, not appreciated widely. That was discouraging for Jack Kerouac. He still received great recognition and notoriety for this work.
The Time magazine chose the novel as one of the 100 best English Novels from 1923 to 2005
It stood 55th in Modern Library’s list of 100 Best English Language Novels of the 20th century.
Adaptation
The film rights were bought by producer Francis Ford Coppola in 1980 for $95000. Coppola tried out many screenwriters and directors before setting down with Walter Salles as director for making the documentary starred Sam Riley and Garret Hedlund for Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty respectively. The film was screened at Cannes Film Festival in 2012 and was nominated for the Palme d’Or.
In 2007, BBC Four aired the documentary ’American Road’ presented by Russell Brand and Matt Morgan inspired by Kerouac’s On the Road and It contained ample section of the original book. It was premiered at the AMFM Festival in California on 14 June 2013, when it won the award for Best Documentary.
About the Author
Jean-Louis Kerouac was (born in March12,1922) an American novelist and poet with French-Canadian ancestry roots. He is considered a literary iconoclast and a pioneer of the Beat Generation. He is recognized for his style of spontaneous prose. His work is based on different aspects of life such as Catholic spirituality, jazz, drugs, poverty, travel, Buddhism, and promiscuity.
He soon became a celebrity of underground Americana, he is the begetter of the hippie movement with other beats, notwithstanding the fact that he remained hostile towards some of its politically radical elements.
He died at the age of 47 in 1969 from an abdominal hemorrhage caused by a lifetime of heavy drinking. His work has become more popular and his literary prestige has grown since his death. His unseen and unheard work has been published. And, all his books are in print today including The Town and the City, On the Road, Doctor Sax, The Dharma Bums, Mexico City Blues, The Subterraneans, Desolation Angels, Visions of Cody, The Sea Is My Brother, Satori in Paris and Big Sur.
He was honored posthumously with a degree of Doctor of Letters from his hometown the University of Massachusetts Lowell on June 2, 2007.
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Rating: 4.1/5
Author: Jack Kerouac
Publisher: Viking Adult
Publishing Date: 5 September 1957
Language: English
Genre: Autobiography, Contemporary Fiction
ISBN-10: 670525126
ISBN-13: 978-0670525126
Pages: 320
Cost: 17,537 INR (Hardcover), 216.60 INR (Kindle Edition),
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