On the Road
Ernie’s Take:
On the Road, by Jack Kerouac, is the quintessential road novel. First written in long scroll form using real names and then edited down with pseudonyms, Kerouac’s novel explores the aimlessness of the post-WWII “Beat Generation” with both gusto and pathos. Widely misunderstood as a paean to rootlessness and reflecting the author’s current situation (instead of being a memoir of youth), the book’s fame proved to be as much a strait-jacket as a blessing. Memorable for such characters as Dean Moriarty (Neal Cassidy) and Old Bull Lee (William S. Burroughs), Kerouac’s work also acts as a valediction for the freedom of youth and a mournful appraisal of the past.
Summary:
Inspired by Jack Kerouac’s adventures with Neal Cassady, On the Road tells the story of two friends whose cross-country road trips are a sad quest for meaning and true experience. Written with a mixture of sad-eyes naiveté and wild abandon and imbued with Kerouac’s love of America, his compassion for humanity, and his sense of language and jazz, On the Road is the quintessential American vision of freedom and hope, a book that changed American literature and changed anyone who has ever picked it up.