On the Road swings to the rhythms of 1950s underground America, jazz, sex, generosity, chill dawns and drugs, with Sal Paradise and his hero Dean Moriarty, traveller and mystic, the living epitome of Beat. Now recognised as a modern classic, its American Dream is nearer that of Walt Whitman than F. Scott Fitzgerald, and it goes racing towards the sunset with unforgettable exuberance, poignancy and autobiographical passion. 'A paean to what Kerouac described as "the ragged and ecstatic joy of pure being."' Sunday Times
Half a century later and still a brilliant book
An autobiographical novel with a poetic ring to its prose, Kerouac's 'On the Road' spans roughly 7 years of the main character's life. It is an entertaining, at times funny, and well written novel that explores the desire to be on the road, to just go and be gone.
Guest, 02/10/2010
