On the Road by Jack Kerouac
On the Road
by Jack Kerouac
(Audio)
Just finished listening to this. I wish I had something super-smart to say about it, because it's the kind of book that feels worthy of something super-smart. But it just didn't Wow me in that way. It didn't live up to the hype for me. And it wasn't what I was expecting, either, but not necessarily in a bad way. I guess I just thought it would be the main character heading out on one road trip across America... when in fact he went all over the darn place, there and back a bunch of times.
Okay, so it was definitely a fascinating look at the culture of the time period and the "characters". I used the Wikipedia Character Key to find out who was who and keep track of them: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_road#Character_key
Sal was all right, and everything was done very realistically, but I didn't fall in love with any of the characters-- not even Sal-- enough to care about his observations. By the end, I was with him- sad and depressed about the state of things. But I didn't feel the high moments the same way. They seemed like little kids goofing off, getting drunk/high, getting laid, and then not caring about each other. I mean, I know they're all eccentric artist types, but seriously, being flaky and abandoning your friends in another country? Huh? At least if they'd had some camaraderie I could have believed that Sal would want to keep hanging out with Dean and keep going on this journey. But it's almost like he must ENJOY how miserable he is because he keeps doing the same things over and over again in every trip. It's only when he goes back to NY that he starts thinking clearly, finds the (new) love of his life, makes an effort not to alienate people, and sees all of Dean/sees Dean for what he is. Personally, I wasn't a fan of him and didn't buy his "epic hero" status at any time. I just didn't buy the "priceless friendship" angle... except that the text described the lack thereof multiple times to me.
Many moments were told with lots of detail- so we got lots of local color. But other times trips across whole states weren't given more than a sentence of mention. It felt... well, not exactly uneven, but unfocused. But maybe that's what one should expect, coming from such a narrator.
The best thing I can say about this book is that I can see how it could stand up to years and years of in-depth analysis. There are so many different ways to look at this story, so many metaphors and connections to draw, so many pieces to examine. I didn't *enjoy* it exactly, but I can respect that it has a lot to show us about humanity and culture. It reminds me a whole lot of Heart of Darkness in that way... though I actually did like that one. I also don't understand how this book can possibly inspire people to want to hit the road and take journeys of their own. I mean, I'm all for cross-country trips and soul journeys and what-not. But I've been thinking of doing that for a while now and if anything this book has put me off the idea.
I'll be interested to see what people say about it at petrini1/authorauthor's book club next week.