Did anyone not like On The Road by Jack Kerouac?

Question

I'm a little scared to post this question because some people are absolutely obsessed with it! I'm sorry, but I've rarely been that disinterested in a book in my life. Hate to use the B word, but I found it boring and tedious. I didn't form any attachment to the characters and really didn't care what happened to them on the way. And yes, before you ask, I did finish it until the end!

I know I might get some responses about how I have bad taste in literature and probably only read drivel like Twilight etc. - but I've read and loved plenty of the classics, and I threw down Twilight after the first few pages.

Am I alone in this?

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker

I'm pleasantly surprised that you haven't been attacked yet - you've managed to insult both OTR and Twilight! This can be a savage and obsessive category....

I liked OTR but wasn't crazy about it - and I read it at peak obsessive stage (late teens, pseudo-creative, itchy feet). Perhaps being a hormonal female with a crush on someone, I empathised a little too much with Sal's 'crush' on Dean and disliked what I saw about myself there!

I re-read it recently (early 30s) and found it easier to read but more innocent than I'd remembered. I'd learnt a lot about the counter culture & the beats since then, and could see its relevance and influence on the movement - it really was ground breaking. But however much I really, really wanted it to be relevant to me as well as to the kids of the 60s, I just couldn't. Maybe you had to be there.

Oh, and my boyfriend tried reading it (big Hunter S T fan) and loathed it so much he lost my copy so he didn't have to finish it! You are not alone :)

Asker's Rating:

Asker's Comment:

Lol, I'm pleasantly surprised as well! Seems like I got off fairly lightly...
I can accept that it was ground breaking for it's time but nowadays...? Blah. It just doesn't appeal to me at all. Thanks!

Answer 2

I was not thrilled with On the Road either. For me, the "free wheeling traveler" genre has been done to death, and there was nothing in the book that told me anything new. I admit that this book might have been groundbreaking in the genre of travel fiction at the time, but by now the story has been told, and told, and told (Easy Rider, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance)

Answer 3

Interesting that the earlier poster mentioned books that came after, a few decades after in some cases as On the Road.
No, it isn't everyone's cup of tea.

Answer 4

The "free wheeling traveler" genre has been done to death because Jack Kerouac started it with "On the Road"!

Totally agree that the style is not for everyone. The beats are an odd bunch and, while I love some of them tremendously, there are others that I feel I just can't relate to. Like many others, their cause is a bit extreme. But the romantic in me forgives them for a lot of that.

I think the book deserves a lot of respect for standing out as the epitome of the "road story", and I feel a strong connection to that approach to literature, but don't feel guilty if you didn't enjoy it. You'll only offend those other extremists out there.

Answer 5

Personally, I thoroughly enjoyed it. But don't beat yourself up because you didn't. Taste is personal, and if you don't connect with the characters it's going to be rough. Just because it's a classic doesn't mean you have to love it. I read a lot of classics as well, but there are many that don't do it for me. Dickens bores the...well the dickens out of me, Faulkner is over my head, and Vonnegut just seems silly. But that's me.

Answer 6

You are not alone. I was forced to read this in school and found it to be boring and tedious as well. I, too, have read and loved many of the classics but this one just was not to my liking.

Answer 7

Haven't read it yet, its been sitting in on my bookshelf for months! oops!