On the Road by Jack Kerouac

In the book Things I Should Have Told My Daughter by Pearl Cleage, Pearl mentioned the book On the Road by Jack Kerouac:

"I am reading Jack Kerouac's On the Road and it wonderful, wonderful, wonderful! Where has this book been all my thirty years? I love it"

After reading that statement from Pearl, I wrote that title down, did a little research on On the Road, downloaded On the Road, and read it.

According to the website Sparknotes, "On the Road gave voice to a rising, dissatisfied fringe of the young generation of the late forties and early fifties. It was after the Great Depression and World War II and more than a decade before the Civil Rights movement and the turmoil of the '60s. Yet, though it has been fifty years since the events in On the Road, the feelings, ideas, and experiences in the novel are still remarkably fresh as expressions of restless, idealistic youth who yearn for something more than the bland conformity of a generally prosperous society."

In this book Dean Moriarty and Sal Paradise roamed all over the United States around the year 1947.  Dean had recently been released from jail and newly married, and Sal was a young writer. Together, they met interesting people, have very unique experiences, and by the end of the novel, they both had significantly changed; they both seemed like old, thoughtful men by the end. Because of their changes, it seemed like they had been on the road for much longer than three years.

I can see how this book would speak to the heart of a person who wants to live and live life freely. Reading this book, I thought about the idea of not having responsibilities and being able to freely travel the world without giving much care to tomorrow.

This was not the most exciting book at all, but their was something about it that kept me reading...I think I was curious to know where Dean and Sal would end up. I definitely wanted to understand their lives and was able to do that through the people that they met and their adventures on the road.

I would recommend this book maybe? It did speak to me, but not sure if I would have missed much if I had not read it. Sometimes I read just to be able to have a wide range of knowledge, and that is the main reason that I would recommend this book.

Jack Kerouac (1922-1969)

Read, Read, and Grow!