On the Road - Jack Kerouac

My travel with Jack Kerouac began and ended here. On the Road is rightfully a classic work, but an immensely bad one. The Beat Generation, as this novel defines it as, speaks to the breaking of structural and moral regard so a novel can be written on the most basic level and represent the most common thoughts of an individual. One could say the travel of a person across a great distance to find himself recalls other large works, but On the Road isn't about anything. It's a masturbatory work about a character who is more self absorbed than self reflective. The writing, suppose to be rough, instead looks like it was written by someone with the talent of a decent high school writer. The novel is really amateur hour. The subject is suppose to be exciting and fun to read, but quickly bored me in all senses. A walk with a character where nothing interesting happens on any level is just a stiff walk. Those who still credit the novel for breaking structural norms can stand down because novels as early as the 1930s were doing basically what On the Road does. They were actually better and more interesting, but they didn't become famous. On the Road had the lucky chance to debut during a cultural shift in America. I don't believe there was a purpose to record the turning tide of America. If there was, it was badly done anyways. Kerouac doesn't develop it as a theme. He just records the basics of his life. The worlds just aligned for that to be considered semi-meaningful because it incorporated a new America.