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Title details for On the Road by Jack Kerouac - Available

On the Road

by Jack Kerouac
Will Patton
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
ON THE ROAD chronicles Jack Kerouac's years traveling the North American continent 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 an inspirational work of lasting importance. Kerouac’s classic novel of freedom and longing defined what it meant to be “Beat” and has inspired every generation since its initial publication more than fifty years ago.
 
“ON THE ROAD is a winding, meandering journey, and Will Patton's performance as narrator provides the map... Patton creates distinct voices for the two main characters, speaking for…the observant Sal Paradise and…the pleasure-seeking Dean Moriarty. Patton is appropriately quiet or exuberant, optimistic or cautious, and an ideal guide into the experience that is ON THE ROAD.”–Winner of an AudioFile Earphones Award

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    October 9, 2007

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781415943410
      • File size: 320993 KB
      • Duration: 11:08:44

  • Languages

    • English

  • Levels

    • Lexile® Measure: 740
    • Text Difficulty: 3-4

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Reflecting the jazzy style of its day, ON THE ROAD gave an honest vision to a post-war generation of bored youths longing for sex, drugs and adventure on the open road. Kerouac counterpoints the rhythms and structures of Sal Paradise's long, poetic sentences with Dean Moriarty's bursts of raw energy to create the music of this apotheosis of Beat. Tom Parker (aka Grover Gardner) performs with intelligence in pacing and characterization and complete awareness of meanings. Parker's strong but relaxed voice carries us through the lonely, love-starved American landscape in which the mystical (and now mythological) Moriarty fights a losing battle against oblivion. Tom Parker's performance is tremendous. He makes it seem so easy! P.W. Winner of AUDIOFILE Earphones Award (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine
    • AudioFile Magazine
      The year 2007 marked the 50th anniversary of this modern classic, and an audio interpretation is a marvelous way to experience Kerouac's free-flowing prose. Will Patton, noted for his performance of books by James Lee Burke, is a fine match for this text. ON THE ROAD is a winding, meandering journey, and Patton's performance as narrator provides the map. His voice brings the vitality of Kerouac's sense of spontaneity into being. Patton creates distinct voices for the two main characters, speaking for Kerouac in the guise of the observant Sal Paradise and for his friend Neal Cassady in the guise of the pleasure-seeking Dean Moriarty. Patton is appropriately quiet or exuberant, optimistic or cautious, and an ideal guide into the experience that is ON THE ROAD. R.F. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine
    • AudioFile Magazine
      It's amazing that, with only a small bag of vocal tricks and no particular attention to subtext, Frank Muller can hold one's attention through a tome as large as this one. His voice is inherently compelling and always expressive. Here he essays the bestselling roman ê clef by the author who named and exemplified the Beat Generation. Penniless young Sal Paradise, Kerouac's alter ego, travels across America to discover himself with the help of a new buddy fresh out of reform school. Here one finds the themes that profoundly influenced the counterculture of the 60s. Muller emphasizes the romance and adventure of Paradise's escapades, though, if our hero grew spiritually and intellectually from his pilgrimages, we do not hear it. Y.R. (c) AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine
    • AudioFile Magazine
      When Jack Kerouac wrote ON THE ROAD, he typed the novel on a 120-foot scroll of paper as one long paragraph. This unedited version of the classic novel features a freer use of words, as well as the original names of Kerouac's friends for many of the characters. While this "version" of the novel may be of more interest to Kerouac devotees, this reading by John Ventimiglia (Artie Bucco in "The Sopranos") is full of subtle expression and intonation. His cadence and raw tone, combined with his range of voices, help give the story a tone of realism. While his narration may be just a bit slow, it's a fine reading of a seminal work. K.M. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      September 3, 2007
      In introducing the fabled first draft of Kerouac's autobiographical novel-written on a single giant roll of paper, without breaks in the text, in an amphetamine-fueled marathon-editor Howard Cunnell refers to Allen Ginsberg's claim that "the published novel is not at all like the wild book Kerouac typed in '51." Characters are identified by their real names (rather than the 1957 version's apt pseudonyms) and their love affairs are more explicit, giving the book a juicy memoir-like feel, especially where Cassady and Ginsberg are concerned. The plot, however, is identical. Neal Cassady joins Kerouac and Ginsberg's bohemian circle in New York in the late 1940's, and inspires and cons them into traveling around the country, "searching for a lost inheritance, for fathers, for family, for home, even for America." The death of Kerouac's father plays a larger role in the story than in the 1957 version; and Justin W. Brierly, a teacher who served as mentor to Cassady and has a cameo in the published book, makes a series of recurring appearances in the scroll. The lack of paragraphs or chapters emphasizes the breathless intensity of Kerouac's prose. The anniversary publicity will introduce this classic to a new generation of readers, and while the scroll probably won't displace the novel's more familiar, polished incarnation, it will be of keen interest to beat aficionados and scholars.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

Levels

  • Lexile® Measure:740
  • Text Difficulty:3-4

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