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On the Road

On the Road

Author(s): Jack Kerouac

Location(s): Mexico, United States (USA)

Genre(s): Autobiography/Memoirs, Travelogue

Era(s): 1950s

Location

Content

The two main characters of the book are the narrator, Salvatore “Sal” Paradise, and his new friend Dean Moriarty, much admired for his carefree attitude and sense for adventure, a free-spirited maverick eager to explore all kicks and an inspiration and catalyst for Sal’s travels. The novel contains five parts, three of them describing road trips. During their trips and searches, they change and their relationship changes. The narrative takes place in the years 1947 to 1950 and is full of Americana and marks a specific era in jazz history, “somewhere between its Charlie Parker Ornithology period and another period that began with Miles Davis.” The novel is largely autobiographical, Sal being the alter ego of the author and Dean standing for Neal Cassady. (Wickipedia)

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Lead Review

On The Road, the most famous of Jack Kerouac’s works, is not only the soul of the Beat movement and literature, but one of the most important novels of the century. Like nearly all...

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