I've been reading On the Road and I'm almost done and I hate to say this but it's not really that great. I had the hardest time trying to concentrate on some of the chapters without, sad to say, slowly dozing off. I guess I just don't understand what's the main point of the story and I hate not being able to grasp the whole purpose of a book. The novel is suppose to be one of Jack Kerouac's more notable works but the whole book itself is about two mad men named Sal and Dean traveling across American from the East to the West and then back again. They travel without any thought or reason; just merely based on their impulse to go somewhere and start over new. So basically they travel mile after mile with one destination in mind: to get to New York without any knowledge as to how they're going to get there, just that they are.
On the surface Sal and Dean just look like a bunch of idiotic low-lives with no purpose in life but as you squint to see what lies beneath the surface, you realize that they are what signifies the "beat" generation. Which with the help of Wikipedia is the "rejection of mainstream American values, experimentation with drugs and alternate forms of sexuality, and an interest in Eastern spirituality." And although that may make the book seem like a pretty significant contributor to the development of American cultural history, I still stick to my initial thought that the book doesn't live up to all the hype.
On another note, I've gained 10 pounds and am about to jump off a cliff. Must exercise but as you all know that's physically impossible when you live in America, especially L.A., where there's a restaurant and fast food place outside of every gym. So I rest my case.
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