Date Finished: 16/03/2011
My Rating: 1/5
I had been really looking forward to reading this book. I'd heard people say things like 'it was an instant classic' and 'it changed my life' and all sorts of exciting things like that. Oh, how my bubble was burst! What I am about to write may be controversial, but I really didn't like this book. I found it an absolute drag to get through, I hated the characters, and found very little of interest about the story at all.
Now, part of this may not exactly be the fault of the book. To me, it reads like a bit of cliche, but I think this is due to the style of writing being copied so many times since On the Road was published that the book has suffered as a consequence. I'm sure that when it was first published it would have been exciting to pick up and read something so new and different, but personally I had to force myself to get through it to the end.
I cared little for the characters. Dean Moriarty sounded like a total pain, and the way he treated his women was just saddening. In fact, the way I interpreted all the characters was that if they had walked into a pub that I was in, it would have annoyed me. They'd be that bunch of people that talk too loudly because they think that they are the only ones in the pub with anything interesting to say, and that everybody else should just know that they are cool. You know, because they were all about the 'beat' or whatever. If you then left the pub, giving them a dirty look because they were acting like dicks, they would feel sorry for you because you just don't get 'it', and would never understand them or what they were about. Oof, my worst nightmare.
This book must be loved by lots of people, and I kind of wish I was one of them. But I'm not.
So, who should read this book? I'm not quite sure how to answer this question. People that I have spoken to that remembered enjoying it, said they read it in their late teens, so maybe that's the way forward. Or if you have a list of classics that you want to get through and this is on it!!
Next book: Magician, Raymond E. Feist
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