Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Review of On the Road (Essential.penguin S.)

On the Road (Essential.penguin S.)
reviewed on + 220 more book reviews


Three generations of writers, musicians, artists, and poets cite their discovery of On the Road as the event that "set them free."

On the Road chronicles Jack Kerouac's years traveling North America with his friend Neal Cassady, "a sideburned hero of the snowy West." As "Sal Paradise" and "Dean Moriarty," the two roam the country in a quest for self-knowledge and experience. Kerouac's love of America, his compassion for humanity, and his sense of language as jazz combine to make On the Road a work of lasting importance. A true classic. A++++++++