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57 of 67 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
50th Anniversary Edition: Same Book, Different Cover, August 16, 2007
This review is from: On the Road: 50th Anniversary Edition (Hardcover)
My review is about this particular release of the book, not the author's fine story itself.
Jack Kerouac's On The Road is a magnificent book I read every single summer. I already own a couple of well-worn paperback versions, along with the hardcover 40th Anniversary Edition, so as a great fan I could hardly wait to get my hands on this latest version, touted as the 50th Anniversary Edition; but imagine my dismay, then, when I found my new, much-anticipated purchase to be the exact same book as the 40th Anniversary Edition, except for a different dust-cover!
I guess I don't know what I was expecting...perhaps an expanded introduction, maybe additional pictures of, say, Kerouac, Cassady, Ginsberg. SOMETHING! At the very least, you might think there would be a change to the typeface, different paper used, or an alteration to the layout, but, no, NOTHING!
And when I get around to reading it, I bet I find the very same typos in the very same places.
Again, this is not a rant about Kerouac's masterpiece, which is perhaps my very favorite read; I'm simply expressing my disappointment in the 50th Anniversary Edition, which hasn't changed one bit in ten long years. It's still a fine release, however, one worthy of most anyone's library; but it could have been, should have been, made into something special -- something memorable and collectible.
They might have changed the dust-cover, but the editors failed to remove the dust for those of us who already own the 40th Anniversary Edition and were anxiously awaiting another, unique version for our bookshelves.
If you already own a copy of On The Road and desire something truly "different" to add to your Kerouac collection, try On The Road: The Original Scroll.
On the Road: The Original Scroll
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A Young Man's Book, December 17, 2007
This review is from: On the Road: 50th Anniversary Edition (Hardcover)
After six months of reading Trollope (and loving it) this year, I realized it was time to put the Victorians behind me for a while and started checking out the New York Times book reviews. Coincidentally, the 50th anniversary of "On the Road" came to my attention. It seemed like gross oversight to have lived in America for 50 years and not know anything of Kerouac.
"On the Road" seems like a young man's book (both for the writer and the reader). I wish I'd come to Kerouac 30 years earlier, at which time I was living in Manhattan among a circle of friends all taking ourselves way too seriously. For a susceptible young mind, reading it might encourage indulgence in more youthful high-spirited madness and irresponsible experience; perhaps that's healthy, perhaps not, but it would create memories. "On the Road" is a great promotion for Life and Experience (and less brooding).
However, that said, reading the book (as a man in his fifth decade), I appreciated the book without finding it a consistently enjoyable or satisfying experience. Within the first hundred pages, I became impatient with the sameness of all the events of the book and its characters. I stayed with the book out of curiosity and hope, trusting that there would be development or growth of either character or plot.
But, reading of the characters' somewhat redundant frenetic buzzings here and there, the picture that often came to mind was that of a flea circus: all frenzied mindless activity without purpose or pattern ("sound and fury signifying nothing").
I suspect that, if one read only the first 50 pages and the last 50, little of the experience of reading the book would be lost, and this is hardly a recommendation for a book. The exception would be the loss of some fine passages of prose poetry. If one stops focusing on plot and development, there can be satisfaction to be had from savoring the descriptive writing.
Is it possible to care about a book without caring about the characters? I'd go so far as to say that there were no real characters. Dean is a speech pattern, a distinctive highly-energized speech pattern, but he seems little more. Reading Sal's frequent references to Dean's madness, I wondered if Sal meant that Dean was literally mad and if the book's culmination might be his total mental dissolution. But, at the end, Dean was still sweating and rubbing his belly and babbling as in the first chapter. Sal the observer, himself seems a bottomless vessel; more and more may be poured into him, but he never fills and nothing of substance pours back out. And the rest of the characters are largely interchangeable.
In the end, I think it's easy to esteem "On the Road" as a kick in the butt of literature, and as a new-sounding (for the time) and distinctive voice. But I'm not driven to seek out more.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ultimate Version of a Classic redone, January 4, 2008
Everything old is new again!
I remember reading Jack Kerouac immortal novel of a road trip when I was in high school. About ten years later, I heard a Rhino record collection of Kerouac reading abridged cuts from his novel with Steve Allen (yes, author/actor/former Tonight show host) playing piano in the background. About five years later, Durkin Hayes audio had David (Kung Fu) Carradine reading an abridged version of the novel. About five years ago, Caedmon audio had Matt Dillon read an unabridged version of Road. Now Will Patton has stepped up to the audio plate, orating an unabridged recording of Road
Patton brings a southern charm to his narration of this classic American novel of an anatomy of a road trip early 1950's. This audio capture the beatnik era in the reading. Patton's vocal shading is amazing to listen to.He seem to capture the era and the characters with a quick change in his voice or tone
As I have said, I have other versions before, but this seem to be a verbal time capsule of an era gone by.
For those who have not read the book, this audio will be a perfect chance to listen to great literature.
Bennet Pomerantz AUDIOWORLD
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@Didn’tTypeOnTP! For TWITTERATURE of On the Road by Jack Kerouac, please see On the Road by Jack Kerouac. 
