Reviews for Off the road

The average rating for Off the road based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-06-30 00:00:00 James Cruz I read this book last year, but still keep a copy in the passenger door shelf of my car because it is one I can easily dip in and out of when traffic to or from work has gridlocked and I get a chance to pull over and wait it out (Note: I do not read and drive, in case you were worried.) When I was in my mid-teens, I simply adored Jack Kerouac's writing. I could not get enough of it. His books always promised a sense of freedom and symbolised a defiance of whatever convention seemed to bug me at the time. And how could I not love the writing that inspired so many of my other cultural heroes? It didn't come easy at that time to criticise Kerouac's writing for the sexism and blatant promotion of opportunism that is the foundation of Sal's and Dean's exploits. Off the Road, which is the story of Carolyn Cassady, Neal Cassady's wife (well, one of them), offers a counterpart to the stories of Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady. It holds up a mirror to the romanticised notion of the Beats and offers a somewhat more balanced insight to both the man who would be immortalised as Dean Moriarty in On the Road and the man who would create him as a literary hero. Cassady gives quite an honest and to-the-point account of what lead her to become in volved with Neal Cassady, their ensuing relationship, and the events that have lead her to abandon the life of a society dropout. On occasion, her narration is funny, at other times it come across as bitter, though this arguably is justified. What struck me most is the level of naivete that she displayed at the beginning of her relationship with Neal. There were quite a few moments that caught me rolling my eyes in disbelief. However, I guess that so would she having the benefit of hindsight. What Off the Road did really well for me was to portray the double standards that build the basis of On the Road - and which are not mentioned by Kerouac. What I mean is that, as much as On the Road raves on about the aspirations of being an independent single-minded carefree human being, it never mentions that Dean/Neal and his friends relied heavily on the goodwill and hard work of their family and friends. Review first added at BookLikes:

Review # 2 was written on 2009-08-11 00:00:00 James Mccafferty It’s hard not to get caught up in the romance of Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady travelling across America in the 1950s. I keep thinking I’ll grow out of my fascination with Beat writers, but I haven’t yet. However, Carolyn Cassady’s memoir presents a starkly different perspective on Beat history: her story fills in the ‘inbetween’ times; a life of not being on the road, but at home with children and a real life. In other books about Kerouac et al, both Neal and Carolyn are typically described in broad strokes: Neal was a sex maniac imbecile and Carolyn the pathetic idiot who tolerated him. In fact, Carolyn (I’ll forsake formality and refer to her by her first name, to save confusion) was educated, down-to-earth and clearly intelligent. Neal was a voracious reader, who had real potential as a writer, but instead excelled at the manual labour jobs he took to support his family. While Carolyn is often left out of core Beat history, she clearly had close relationships with both Kerouac and Ginsberg. Off the Road recounts in detail (wow, a lot of detail… more on that later) her memories of the 40s, 50s and 60s in their company. The book is filled with amazing nuggets of information that I haven’t encountered in any other history of the Beat era. My favourite: Kerouac turned down an offer from Warner Brothers to adapt On the Road into a movie starring him and Neal, if he wanted the part. For the Beat geek, it’s a more than worthwhile read. However, if you are not the type to break into seal claps at a mention of Michael McClure, it may just be a litany of descriptions of people you don’t know or care about. Off the Road is, by definition, a very subdued read. It’s hard not to feel desperately sorry for Carolyn as Neal repeatedly runs away to have adventures, cheats on her countless times and generally saps all of her energy. It is, in part, a story of how difficult it was to be a young mother in an unstable relationship in the mid part of the twentieth century. Carolyn’s potential for career progression or simple autonomy is repeatedly submerged by the demands of childcare and Nealcare. Did I mention the detail? Oh yeah, the book is long and, without any real structure beyond simple chronology, it becomes a slog to the end. My three-star review is a little generous, since I didn’t find it an especially enjoyable read. Nonetheless, Carolyn’s story is an interesting one, and this is an important piece of Beat history.