Note about the kindle version - it crashes Paperwhites, but is great on a Fire tablet: --------------
The kindle version of this book (On the Road: The Original Scroll) crashes and freezes when I read it on a Paperwhite. I tried it on two different Paperwhites (one is being returned for screen issues, the other is its replacement) and it did the same thing on both.
Towards the end of the book, after reading 10 pages or so, the screen turns white and sometimes launches a restart and other times just freezes for a long time. Customer service had me "permanently delete" the book as a way of solving the issue, but after they restored the purchase, the problem persists.
Fortunately, I was reading it on a fire tablet as well which, as I explain below, is almost the only way in which the book should be read. -----------------------------------------------
I first read this book (as originally published, not the scroll) as required reading in an English class. Unfortunately, I remember pretty much zero about it, so my guess is that I either skimmed it or read the SparkNotes version. If that sounds familiar, then I urge you to revisit this book and really, honestly, actually read it.
The older version of the book I "read" used pseudonyms for the Beat writer characters who appeared in it. Even if I had had any idea who William Burroughs, Neal Cassady, and other Beat writers were at the time, I likely wouldn't have been able to figure out which character was which. In this version, the pseudonyms are gone, the characters are who they are, often described in brutal and uncompromising terms, which frankly makes for a far more interesting read.
[A word of caution, however, is in order - maybe several - owing to the casual use of disparaging language, as well as to the inclusion of material that was cut from the originally published version because it was deemed to be too pornographic.]
I highly recommend reading it on a device that allows page scrolling. The reason for this is that Kerouac wrote the manuscript for this book on a single piece of paper, which in this case was a 120-foot-long scroll that he fashioned by taping pieces of paper together. It was typed single-spaced, without margins or paragraph breaks, so it's a rather remarkable thing to be able to read it just as he wrote it.
(Just as an FYI, my kindle paperwhite does not have page-scrolling capability nor do most other kindle readers as I have been told, neither does the kindle app on my laptop, but the kindle fire accommodates page scrolling, as does the kindle app on my phone.)
Whichever way you choose to read the book will be worth it. It's an insider's view into the world of the ' highest echelons of the Beat writers - their young lives and how they became who they eventually became in spite of their numerous personal flaws. It's also incredible look at America in the late 1940s from Kerouac's point of view as a hitchhiker who goes cross-country with barely two nickels to rub together and never knowing what the new day or next mile will hold. It was somewhat amazing to realize that people could hook up with their friends in completely strange cities, and even out in the wilds of Texas, without having cell phones!
This book is shot through with incredibly beautiful passages. Of traveling through California's central valley, he writes:
"Soon it got dusk, a grape dusk, a purple dusk over tangerine groves and long melon fields; the sun the color of pressed grapes, slashed with burgundy red, the fields the color of love and Spanish mysteries. I stuck my head out the window and took deep breaths of the fragrant air. It was the most beautiful of all moments."
The book is also very funny which stems, I think, from Kerouac's self-deprecating honesty about the often crazy and improbable situations in which he finds himself over and over again, as well as from his descriptions of people and places that he lays out as just he sees them. But no matter what was happening, I found myself completely wrapped up in the narrative of Kerouac's travels and his travails, and by the weird charm of Kerouac himself.
This is a book well worth reading, or re-reading, especially if "the original scroll" was not the version that was read before. It has a permanent place on my shelf of personal classics.
I do not recommend reading it on kindle readers because of my very frustrating experience with that.
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About the author
Kerouac's "On the Road" Inspires Art from Literature
I really enjoyed Kerouac's novel, and have been inspired to create several paintings based on this classic book. Kerouac is naked, exposed, and down to earth in his narrative of the "Beat" generation and the struggle to find a voice and purpose during that period of time after WWII. Great stuff for me, as an artist to inspire abstract images and ethereal landscapes. Many great quotes have come from Kerouac's writing, and this book has so many great quotes indeed. All of which inspire art. If you wish, you can view the paintings here - http://robbievangogh.strikingly.com/ The attached photo is "Nuage Banque" Ethereal landscape using acrylic paint and tattoo ink on canvas. Inspired by jack Kerouac's novel, On the Road.“I was halfway across America, at the dividing line between the East of my youth and the West of my future, and maybe that's why it happened right there and then, that strange red afternoon.” Jack Kerouac, "On the Road.
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on January 28, 2023
- Reviewed in the United States on January 29, 2009
Top reviews from other countries
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- Tom QuinnReviewed in the United Kingdom on July 2, 2021
A holy journey,.a holy book...
