On the Road

The Book

I was looking forward to reading On the Road, as it is feted by so many as a cult American novel and the essence of the Beat Generation. Looking at other people's reviews on Good Reads, it seems to be you either love it or hate it. I feel somewhat ambivalent - it is a rambling story, very much just an outpouring of Sal's thoughts and deeds and you do get carried along, like you are clinging to the tail bumper.
It's like reading someone else's travelogue diary on speed, who never stops to savour the place or the moment, but always wants to keep on moving to the next shallow experience. There are some examples of wonderful descriptive prose, describing some of the landscapes Sal travels through, but these are thrown in amongst the haphazard picking up and dropping off of so many characters that you never get to know.






I love travel and would leap at the opportunity to drive across America, but I think I would take a much more leisurely pace and do it with people less manic and self-obsessed than Sal, Dean and Mary-Lou.

The piece I enjoyed the most was towards the end when they had travelled into Mexico and were experiencing the jungle. The description of the endless insects in the night and humidity was heady and evocative.




 On the Road Film website




The Film

The film cannot convey the writing style of the book, and because of this the linear narrative becomes more rooted in the people they meet, the characters themselves and the places that they visit rather than the journey getting there.

 It is less introverted and although you enjoy the charismatic company of Dean Moriarty more, his callous and selfish side is still quite apparent. I found this less so when he was treating the women and men in his life so badly but when he abandons his bromance with Sal in Mexico after he gets dysentery, you know he's not a reliable friend to anyone.

I felt it evoked the Beat Generation movement much better than reading the book, as it conveyed the music, drugs and creativity through voice over readings.
The three leads were all a joy to watch, with Garrett Hedlund a mesmerising Dean and who would have thought that Kristen Stewart could act based on the Twilight movies, but she portrays all the joy and pain of being along for the ride in Dean's life.
The film was more a biopic about Neal Cassady (Dean) and it was more obvious who people actually were (which made the character pseudonyms an annoying affectation). Something which the film drew more on was the bisexuality of Neal, with his relationship with Allen Ginsberg quite clear.  I thought the end titles following the back of an older Dean walking along a railroad track was a nice touch, referencing Neal's death at 41 where he was found by the track in Mexico in a coma, having spent the cold desert night in just a t-shirt and jeans.

The Beat Generation seems to be a group in America's literary history that is often returned to at the moment and I look forward to the new film Kill Your Darlings with Daniel Radcliffe playing Allen Ginsberg. 

If you enjoyed the book, try Hunter S Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas or Naked Lunch by William Burroughs

If you enjoyed the film, I would recommend Howl with James Franco as Allen Ginsberg