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On the Road

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On the Road

By: Jack Kerouac
Narrated by: Matt Dillon
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About this listen

Sal Paradise, a young innocent, joins his hero Dean Moriarty, a traveller and mystic, the living epitome of beat, on a breathless, exuberant ride back and forth across the United States. Their hedonistic search for release or fulfilment through drink, sex, drugs and jazz becomes an exploration of personal freedom, a test of the limits of the American dream.

A brilliant blend of fiction and autobiography, Jack Kerouac's exhilarating novel swings to the rhythms of 1950s underground America, racing towards the sunset with unforgettable exuberance, poignancy and autobiographical passion. One of the most influential and important novels of the 20th century, On the Road is the book that launched the beat generation and remains the bible of that literary movement.

©1957 Jack Keourac (P)2015 Audible, Inc Classics Coming of Age Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction

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All stars
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A many times read book is given a new lease of life by Matt Dillon for which he must be congratulated. Beyond its significance in American and World literature is the description of a , sadly, too much changed world. A book to savour and enjoy, repeatedly

A superb rendition of an epic book

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Definitely a product of its time. Whilst the characters lie, cheat and steal their way across America full of indignation that the police would stop them at any point.

The rambling 'Spontaneous Prose' of the piece is an interesting way of writing and I guess if the story is really about the journey rather the destination one way to emphasis that is to make are that Sal Paradise never gets where he's aiming to get. My biggest takeaway is the characters who's hedonistic ways see them burn through all the money they can get, have, cheat or have wired to them.

Full of awe about the road that they're on and the people they meet along the way, crossing America with only 10 sandwiches in your pocket and having a lot of questionable hobbies and sexual preferences. A lot of problematic behaviour to "fags" when they court underage girls with abandon and mistreat almost every female character in the novel (although they're not exactly kind to each other they at least feel bad about it).

definitely a product of its time

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Excellent listen, not unexpected sad ending.
Supposedly we all have to grasp the nettle and settle down and conform

Good story

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I believe On the Road is regarded as an American classic but I knew next to nothing about it. I assumed that, being voiced by a well known actor, it would be great combination. I’m not sure it worked out.

Matt Dillon’s voice is appropriately gravelly, and some of the dialogue was convincing but... my theory is that Dillon is more of a visual actor. I think Jack Kerouac can turn a decent phrase or two. He’s probably got talent, is what I’m saying.

There were some descriptive passages that, on the written page, were probably astoundingly beautiful. There were glimpses. But Dillon’s delivery is so throw-away, so poorly annunciated, so little stressed, that it was literally impossible to say if Kerouac is a genius like James Joyce or just a disorganised, mostly sloppy, sometimes breathtakingly good but basically...not that great writer. I would need to actually read the words on the page to know.

Basically, it sounded like the author was drunk and the actor was drunker!

Probably better than it sounds

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Love this book, Matt Dillon's narration is perfect, could listen to his voice all day!

Absolutely brilliant

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Re-read On The Road as the first time was when I was in my teens (now 50), and traumatised the second time round as a man to read the descriptions of ‘fags’, ‘queers’ and treatment of women throughout the book.

Beat came across as less of a movement and more of an alien lifestyle.

Second Time, Traumatic

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Still a classic..i hear new things in it with every read or listen.. like a road trip through a pre rock n roll America.. it's full of wide open spaces, desires, exuberance, a lust for life...a trip into the American dream with a superb road buddie in the mystical Dean Moriarty..at times it feels like a Springsteen song

The Promised Land

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In its first, and true draft, Kerouac typed directly on a single continuous roll of paper - a preternatural, crystal clear stream, tic-tac'd on a typewriter. A monotone delivery is pitch perfect and here is what we get in this performance of one of the 'landmark' skid novels of the twentieth century. For me it will always be the 'Birth of the Cool' in written form and transposes neatly in time, place and temperament with the sounds of Miles Davis. The combination of mental, physical, and emotional traits of a person, his natural predisposition, his fears, his motivations, what makes him laugh and where he chooses to dispose of the instinctual energies and desires that are derived from the id. Daddy-oh. A feeling, a place, a time, relax, forget, remember and then let it go....

On a role....

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The best novel ever written... So free.... And Matt Dillon is amazing:.. Better than a paper copy..

Yes yes yes..

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Matt Dillon struggles at times through this poetic ballard about travel across and back through America. When he is being Dean Moriarty he's absolutely on point. However, at other times he struggles with the grammar and punctuation such that the reading feels a bit unplanned.. Notwithstanding, it's an excellent book and unlike anything that came before, or perhaps, since. The Beat Generation seemed to look at the world differently from us. Life was for living; opportunities for the taking. No matter the cost to oneself or others.

Poetry in motion

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