On the Road: the Original Scroll: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)

On the Road is a raw and poetic exploration of youth, freedom, and the American spirit. Kerouac’s spontaneous prose captures the restlessness of a generation and the yearning for something more. The characters feel incredibly real, and their adventures across the country make you want to pack a bag and hit the road. This book isn’t just a travelogue — it’s a philosophy of living freely, intensely, and authentically. A must-read for every literature lover and soul-searcher. Bought it for my college but now its one of the story which I liked

We can spend most of Life that is right now enduring unique measures of inwardness. And in this rush of feeling and the ambivalence of time, we pull up the blanket, roll over to the side, and curl up in our bellies and groan. Groan and whisper sweet-nothings until sleep delivers us to darkness. Until time shows up in tides of feelings and we tuck them in drawers, remote but one’s own. Reading On The Road felt a lot like this. Let’s keep everything aside and contemplate the themes of ‘movement and life, stagnation and death’ in the story. This story has everything in it but it amounts to nothing. It portrays the becoming of a damaged, lost, and fragmented existence. “I was at the end of America… no more land… and now there was nowhere to go but back.” On The Road is Kerouac’s literary attempt to mystify life. Blurring of realities of what’s lived and what’s imagined in this world until the myth, the ghost, and the spirit of soul become one. The heaviness of which pins the fabric of a person to the earth until it slowly but surely turns to decay and dust. Is it a masterpiece? Is it sincere or self-indulgent? Does it evoke the same reveries that books with vivid and magnificent adventures do? On The Road is an autobiographical account of a fractured, strayed man chronicling his flight from sanity and normalcy. For his life on the road is every moment spent in “holy ecstasy.” It is indulgent of many things as it portrays a striking picture of a war-torn, miserable, and bigoted generation who think of Death as the only final and absolute truth of life; the truth they spent most of their lives running away from. It may be that the Beat generation was first advertised as ‘beatific’ - which means blissful and euphoric. However, Kerouac uses the word “beat” in On The Road to mean anything but. What it stands for is the exhausted, lost, and cracked image of man trapped in his own delusion in such torment and agony, standing in his own pool of sweat. Sweat is another symbolic gateway that plays a symbolic role all throughout the story. The glorious descriptions of the wilderness and the textures of life on the road make this book a compelling and memorable read.

“ON THE ROAD” was the 2nd novel by Jack Kerouac. The novel is the most beautifully executed, the clearest and most important utterance made by the generation Kerouac himself named years ago as “beat” and whose principal avatar he is. It is considered a defining work of the postwar Beat and Counterculture generations, with its protagonists living life against a backdrop of jazz, poetry, and drug use. It coined one of the most immortal quotes of the “beat” – “the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn, or say a common place thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding across the stars” This is an autobiographical novel about a series of cross-country automobile trips that Kerouac made between 1947 and 1950, both by himself and with his friend Neal Cassady. Cassady–Dean Moriarty in the book–was a colorful character, a charming and good-looking hustler who accompanied Kerouac on most of his journeys. In the winter of 1947, the reckless and joyous Dean Moriarty, fresh out of another stint in jail and newly married, comes to New York City and meets Sal Paradise, a young writer and his intellectual friends. Dean fascinates Sal, and their friendship begins three years of restless journeys back and forth across the country. Through all of this constant movement, there is an array of colorful characters, shifting landscapes, dramas, and personal development. Sal, who at the beginning is depressed, gains in joy and confidence and finds love at the end. At first Sal is intrigued by Dean because Dean seems to have the active, impulsive passion that Sal lacks, but they turn out to have a lot more in common. The story is in the details. The narrative goes racing towards the sunset with unforgettable exuberance, poignancy and passion. The novel evokes such strong sentiments that the normal life feels like a cage and heart longs for the care-free wanderings as practiced by the protagonists in the novel. A must read for anyone young at heart.

I am a bit of a weird 13-year-old in my views and opinions, the films I watch and like, the music I listen to and the books I read. I asked my English teacher if he'd read On the Road and what he'd thought of it. He told me he thought I should wait a few years before reading it basically because of it's content and the fact that the characters are laid-back, don't give a damn and take drugs. I'm glad I didn't take his advice (it was a bit late seeing as I'd already bought the book) because this is by far the best book I have ever read. The characters don't really give a damn, true, but laid-back they most certainly are not! Kerouac writes with relentless energy, and is such an interesting guy with all his stories (the majority of his works are semi-autobiographyical). Yes, Kerouac does mention some irrelevant things such as conversations with hobos or what he bought in a shop, but who cares about that when his story revolves around his admiration of Dean Moriarty, and their journey driving across America?! That latter part may sound like it could be rather tedious, but this book was written by Jack Kerouac, and he manages to avoid that. I love the part where Sal and Dean leave Carlo Marx in New York, and tell him they'll be back in thirty hours - they drive non-stop throughout the night, New York to Virginia in 10 hours. His unique writing style is something to behold, and at times it sounds almost poetic (the section in Part 1, Chapter 1 which starts with the sentence 'They pranced down the street like dingledodies...' is unforgettable). It's a shame that Kerouac died so young, and that he is only remembered for this book, because I think he had so much more to give. It's just fortunate that what he did give us, was On the Road.

Julklapp till min dotter!

Es un buen libro. Y la presentación es muy bonita.

Os protagonistas, Sal e Dean, expressam a desilusão da geração pós 2a Guerra com o afluente American way os life. Ao mesmo tempo, encantam o leitor com a aguçada percepção do que se situa na periferia do capitalismo. A obra é uma explosão de energia, de empatia e integração com o universo.

Arrived in good condition and is supposed to be a really good read.