The release of Popular Penguins at only $9.95 (in Australia) is a fantastic idea. I bought four of them the other day and my first choice to read was On the Road. So, I know it’s a modern classic and that Kerouac set a new trend in writing with the style he called “spontaneous prose”, but I have to say I found this book just tedious. It takes place in the US a few years after the Second World War and follows the lives of a small group of friends as they travel back and forth across the country – for no apparent reason.
Reading this book is like being the only sober person at a party where everyone is more or less sozzled and think themselves articulate, insightful and highly entertaining whereas you think they’re just being stupid. The group of friends in On the Road are constantly drunk or stoned or both, as I imagine Kerouac was when he wrote the book. It’s a long, rambling tale about madcap drives, travelling with next to no money and having to beg, steal and borrow their way from one coast to the other and from one flea-ridden dive to another. I found none of the characters interesting or appealing and the story pretty much without merit in terms of intrigue, excitement, emotion or even plain storyline. Very disappointing. Maybe I need to take some drugs.
I’m not surprised at your opinion. Many people read On The Road first because of its fame, and just can’t get into it. I would have started you out with The Dharma Bums.
Hi Rick,
Thanks for your advice re Dharma Bums – and for reading my review. I just looked at your website and see you’re a Kerouac expert, so I looked up Dharma Bums and found this: http://www.litkicks.com/Books/DharmaBums.html
The writer obviously admires the book, but I have to admit the review makes Dharma Bums sound very similar to On the Road. Maybe I’m just too conventional to appreciate that freewheeling approach to life, the universe and everything!
Be well,
Inge