On the Road by Jack Kerouac Book Review

Hi everyone my name is Cynthia, let’s talk books! 
Today I would like to talk about On the Road by  
Jack Kerouac. This is a book that I recently read 
because it was chosen by my book club for the  
month and I actually had part in choosing this 
book because somebody wanted to read a classic  
they suggested this book and I said yes. This 
book is on a lot of best books written. A lot  
of people will say that this is their favorite 
book. I want to know what it’s all about. I had  
really very little knowledge about this book 
other than there are a lot of people who call  
this their favorite book. It was a mistake. Nobody 
in my book club enjoyed this book and I don’t  
just like doing negative reviews. I don’t 
think like, I know some people just do negative  
reviews for the sake of like doing them to 
get attention. That’s not my goal here at all.  
But I do feel like there is a place for negative 
reviews and for critiques of books and so I don’t  
when I come into, when I create a video on a book 
and it’s a negative review, it’s not just me like
trashing a book out of nowhere. It’s I’ve

read the 
book and there are things to criticize about it.  
And that’s basically what this video will be. So 
first let me talk about who this book appeals to.  
And I think a lot of the appeal of this book is 
for a white male audience, that feels disconnected  
from the world. That feels lost and so the story 
will appeal to them because it’s the story of  
a man who is going out into the 19, late 1940s 
America on the road hitchhiking, not a lot of money  
and it’s just wandering. There isn’t really a plot 
to the story like it’s just a lot of the character  
being on the road with very little money And that 
is what I found quite boring. Those long instances  
of the character just being, just hitchhiking 
and trying to make it from one place to another  
because I felt like the author is, the character 
tries to be present but it’s not, he’s just really  
unhappy. I found that a lot of the characters, 
a lot of the people he meets and  
his friends are people who need therapy, more 
than anything. And it just didn’t appeal to me.  
One of the things that I have seen people 
connect this book to is that it captures a  
slice of Americana like the US in the late 1940s 
after world war two what that was like. And okay  
I can see some of that. I can see how it captures 
little bits and pieces of that but I don’t think  
it has anything to say about most of what it 
captures about white america in the late 1940s.  
It certainly doesn’t have anything 
important to say about non-white people.  
But especially and like about the Americana. Just 
let’s just talk about like the pieces of Americana  
that could be identified in this book. I just don’t 
see, they just were not interesting. Like you see  
Denver during this period but you see it 
through the eyes of people who don’t really  
care about the world or even the world around 
them. They don’t even seem to care that much about  
themselves or the people they love or claim to 
love. So it just didn’t appeal to me. On top of it  
the road trip aspect of it, while realistic was 
also not interesting. I’ve been on some of the  
parts of the road that the the main character 
Sal travels on right. For example I’m from  
Southern California. I’ve made the trip from Southern 
California to Kansas where my family now lives,  
through Denver in Colorado, the state of Colorado 
and also via the southwest. So Arizona, New Mexico,  
Texas. And I’ve also traveled from California 
down to Central Mexico and from kKansas to  
Central Mexico and back. So I’ve actually been 
on large chunks of the road that Sal goes on and
um I did not find his road trips on those chunks 
of road interesting. I don’t think he captured what  
makes some of those places unique and yeah I just 
I didn’t find that part good. I’m like I’ve  
been on those chunks of road. Yeah large chunk of 
it’s nothing or it’s just fields of agriculture  
and okay yeah that’s there. What do you have to… 
like so what? I just did not find that that this  
book ever really told me the so what was. Or I just 
could not identify with the so what here? It just  
I just did not identify with it. On top of it 
you can see I do have a tab. What I have tabbed is  
moments that made me angry. Made me flat out angry. 
And I would have had a lot more but for a chunk of  
it I didn’t have my little tabs. The women are 
treated as objects. They’re just purely sexual  
objects or like money banks, a source of money 
and entertainment. That’s all the women the role  
were the role the women have in this story and okay like that could be 
true to what a lot of men might see women as. But  
then you’re getting a really narrow view 
of this slice of America. And a view that  
then if it’s just white male oriented, then it’s 
not very interesting. Like this whole time I’m  
thinking like the women that are written in this 
story I’m like, why would this these women be with  
these men? tThere’s no good reason. There’s no good 
reason and in fact the author and the character  
know that. They’re aware that there is no good 
reason and yet there they are for sex and money.  
So that was not very much appreciated by me. The 
other element is the racism in here. And I can tell  
the the author, Jack Kerouac thinks he is being 
not racist. He thinks he’s being very open-minded  
because he has his main character Sal, interact 
with black people with brown people.  
Part of the story does takes them into Mexico 
and I was just so affected. So deeply offended  
by this attempt at not being racist. It’s like 
this is a white man trying to not be racist  
instead of just simply not being racist. For 
example, at one point Sal is wandering in a town.  
Wanders into the Black neighborhood and like 
sees Black people hanging out in the streets, the  
children at the park having fun and he just envies 
them. He envies how happy and like jolly they are  
and wishes he had been born Black.
And I had just finished reading I Know Why 
the Caged Bird sings by Maya Angelou which also  
takes place during this time period, in which she 
discusses the experience of being Black in America  
and i tjust made me want to throw this book 
at the wall. I just could not. And then  
for part of the story the main character 
is in a relationship with a Mexican woman.  
All of the brown people are just Mexicans in 
here. Except for one. I think there’s someone from 
Venezuela or something but everyone else is 
just a Mexican. Not Mexican-American, just Mexican.  
So he’s in a relationship with a Mexican woman and 
he is working in the grape fields with her and he…  
first of all, he tries cotton-picking. He’s terrible 
at it. Then he goes and works at the grapes.  
Actually maybe they were working at the 
cotton field. Whatever he’s working in the fields  
and one of the Mexican men in this 
community is attacked. He’s beaten up  
and so Sal decides this is what he thinks he 
thinks that he now has to carry a big stike for  
protection right because quote “they thought 
I was a Mexican of course and in a way I am.”  
Why? Because you’re in a relationship with a 
Mexican woman? Because you’re working in the fields?
And he at several points says all these 
positive things about Mexicans and
it’s just stereotypes. It’s just stereotypes. 
In the part where the characters go to Mexico.  
They go to Mexico on a sex and drug binge. 
They talk about how beautiful the women are.  
The women are beautiful because they are there 
as, there as sexual objects for these men.  
That’s all the characters view these women as. 
And because they’re happy and they don’t have  
the same kind of like, they don’t always, 
they’re not always working. And look at  
the prostitutes. They’re having fun. Which 
prostitutes should I pick? iI like that one  
but this other one’s being very friendly. I 
don’t know how to reject her, so I can’t go with…
I’ll be honest I don’t know why people 
love this book. I mean I know but also no  
no no no. Before anybody says it I’ve read the 
entire book okay. I read the entire book because  
I knew that it if I just talked about not like 
enjoying this book that somebody would say that  
I just didn’t get it. And I have to say, I got 
it fine. There was even a point at within after  
page 100, in which it hit me. This is just gonna 
appeal to people who are really dissatisfied with  
their life and crave like finding themselves. Have 
this romantic vision of what being on the road is  
and that’s not even what’s portrayed here. 
Because it’s not a romantic vision. I’m like  
this guy goes on the road and he’s hitchhiking and 
he’s using his money terribly. Like at some point  
he could use the money to just buy a bus ticker or pay 
for gas and instead he spends it on drink and women.
I’m like if you do that you’re very 
quickly gonna end up it’s not okay.  
You’re very quickly gonna 
realize it’s not a good idea.
I was just so frustrated and more than 
frustrated actually I was bored. Large chunks of  
this… I had to, like at the beginning it was just 
so hard to get page 100. I almost DNFed the book  
because I just, it was so boring. It was putting 
me to sleep because rI usually ead at night, so  
it was putting me to sleep. And I did force myself 
to get to like page 150 somewhere around there.  
And because it was a book club book. And so I try 
as much as I can, to read book club books. And one  
of my goals in 2021 is to not force myself to read 
books. But I did it with this one because I wanted  
to see. … I kept thinking there has to be 
a point there. Just there has to be a point to this.  
There is no point. So there you go, those are 
my thoughts. That is my review of On the Road by  
Jack Kerouac. Take it as you will. I am not here to 
tell people, you know, you cannot read a book. No.  
I’m just here to share my thoughts. I didn’t like 
it. I do not recommend this book. I don’t know why  
it is on people’s lists of best books ever 
written or why it has remained you know…  
I don’t know why people claim 
this is their favorite book. I just  
did not connect with any part of this 
book. So that is it. Take that as you will.  
Thank you so much for watching this 
video and I’ll see you in the next one.
Bye

%d bloggers like this: