A review by worm_food
On the Road by Jack Kerouac

1.5

I get that the novel's main thesis is this boundless pursuit of freedom, but even if you manage to look past the jarring and jittery writing style (which I am willing to admit is personal taste) that doesn't reflect upon itself for most of this book, you are still left with characters who at their free-est still remain ironic, thinking they're above it all because they can't be pinned down. 

There is no true Road towards liberation, and there is no one way that is the right one to reach it, but doing so mindlessly, stumbling upon meaning without respecting it, is always going to be far less meaningful and impactful to me than allowing yourself to be vulnerable and to look at something you deem below you as your equal. The only things Sal Paradise respects throughout the book are the *performative signifiers of freedom - not giving a damn, booze, sex, drugs, being able to trick people into bending to your will. Is that freedom? Is that truth? I don’t know - I can see this book’s appeal to the generation it touched when it came out, but even looking at his mid 20th century contemporaries, it’s hard to place him anywhere near them. Oh well. The main reason this is rated so low is because it was legitimately hard to read, but it gets half a point for its descriptions of America's vastness and temperament, although incredibly biased.