On the Road

From LeoWiki

Score	Title	Author	Genre
7.2	On the Road	Jack Kerouac	LitFi

Technophilia	7
Secularity	8
Quality	7
Xenophilia	8
Personal Tilt	6

Hmm.

On the Road is a fictionalized account of travels across the United States of the late 1940s. Sal Paradise rushes from New York to San Francisco via Denver and back and back again. Sometimes as a prophet, sometimes as a follower, but always searching searching for something undefined. His deified friend Dean does the same, but with more criminal activity along the way.

I couldn't really relate to anyone in this book. It has no geeks, a precious few artists, and only the educated-beyond-one's intelligence kind of intellectuals. The protagonists are all lying, cheating, stealing assholes without a scruple in the world. My misandry hasn't decreased one bit after the read.

Unsympathetic characters aside, the book doesn't really say anything interesting about human nature. It focuses on style over substance, while not doing anything particularly interesting with the style.

As far anti-establishment goes, I think that the palate of the rebels has sophisticated since the '50s. This may have been the revolutionary tract of the 1950s, but to me it's a complete yawn.

Well, it's a classic and it's not painful to read. The beginning is largely the same as the middle is largely the same as the ending. If you want to read it, that's your problem.