Andrew Lawrence’s Reviews > On the Road > Status Update

Pausing this book for now. Not enjoying it enough.

I understand why I liked it before: there are moments of breathtaking beauty, and Kerouac's enthusiasm imbibes everything with a sense of wonder.

But it has yet to hook me, and I've got more interesting books on my shelf.

There are moments of beauty in here. The whole book is a whirllwind, and it's narrated with the breathless enthusiasm of a child at a funfair.

The first time I read this book I was inspired by the travel, the wild, free nights, the jazz.

This time I'm left a bit cold by it. I just want this character to settle down and tend his garden.

This is a re-read for me and I loved it first time through.

So far not feeling the same joy. It's a fantastic frenetic pace which I like, but it's also just a whirlwind of place names (which mean little to me as a non-American) and transient characters who appear, have a couple of lines of dialogue, and then disappear forever.

It's hard to know who I'm meant to remember or why.