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  • On the Road

  • By: Jack Kerouac
  • Narrated by: Matt Dillon
  • Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins
  • 4.1 out of 5 stars (198 ratings)

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On the Road cover art

On the Road

By: Jack Kerouac
Narrated by: Matt Dillon
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Publisher's Summary

Sal Paradise, a young innocent, joins his hero Dean Moriarty, a traveller and mystic, the living epitome of beat, on a breathless, exuberant ride back and forth across the United States. Their hedonistic search for release or fulfilment through drink, sex, drugs and jazz becomes an exploration of personal freedom, a test of the limits of the American dream.

A brilliant blend of fiction and autobiography, Jack Kerouac's exhilarating novel swings to the rhythms of 1950s underground America, racing towards the sunset with unforgettable exuberance, poignancy and autobiographical passion. One of the most influential and important novels of the 20th century, On the Road is the book that launched the beat generation and remains the bible of that literary movement.

©1957 Jack Keourac (P)2015 Audible, Inc

What listeners say about On the Road

Average Customer Ratings
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  • 4 out of 5 stars
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Performance
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Story
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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Dillon's performance made this for me.

A refreshed classic. This can be a difficult read due to the verbatim nature of the writing and particularly the insight into Dean's mind and style.

But the performance was excellent, it never felt read.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Incomprehensible

Hard to follow. The mind of an meth head.
Might have been shocking at the time, but it's a boring story with no plot.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Good, but hard to follow.

I liked it, but I found it to be a challenging read. It's the prose style in which Jack Keruoac writes in that gives it its unique style but makes it feel like one long camp fire story.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

2h into the book out of 10. Im pulling the plug

boring. there is still no plot, the guy is travelling across America. good for him.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Matt Dilon was a poor choice as a narrator!

It is highly Americanised (or Americanized) and some of the places (in both names and descriptions) have little meaning to non- American Audiences. This is negatively impacted by the choice of the narrator who talks at a rapidly, hard to follow, rambling, has little inflection (lacks the natural music of speech; so it sounds boring), and Monotonous performance. I am just a quarter of the way though this book and already thinking of giving up!

Now, I am not one to give a negative review, especially of such literary royalty as Jack Kerouac, but I feel compelled to give such a review. I have paid for a dull, dud story:(. I only gave it two stars as opposed to one, because if I were to write such a story I probably would have given up well before.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
  • ben
  • 04-09-2023

So many quotes

I love the assertiveness that the reader brings. The story triggered memories from my wild youth even though it was a different time a place.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Narration is bad

The narration of this is so bad that it kinda kills the story. I couldn’t even finish it.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars

Monotonous

The monotone voice of the reader may have made this worse than it is. I found it monotonous and boring,

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

delivery leaves a lot to be desired

Story is awesome (a classic) but unfortunately the reader completely failed to do it justice. The delivery comes across stilted, terse and quite lifeless. It seems a little rushed and sounds like the reader is reading a list rather than a book.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

maybe I just don't get it, but it's overrated

If you're looking for a narrative which makes sense, this isn't it. I was pretty disappointed with the pointlessness of this 'iconic' book. There is some fantastic language, but overall it really did not work for me. Dillon is a great actor. But he slurs some key language here which makes it hard to understand.

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