The Catcher in the Rye

Amazon.com

"If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. In the first place, that stuff bores me, and in the second place, my parents would have about two hemorrhages apiece if I told anything pretty personal about them."

His constant wry observations about what he encounters, from teachers to phonies (the two of course are not mutually exclusive) capture the essence of the eternal teenage experience of alienation.

Book Description

Since his debut in 1951 as The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield has been synonymous with "cynical adolescent." Holden narrates the story of a couple of days in his sixteen-year-old life, just after he's been expelled from prep school, in a slang that sounds edgy even today and keeps this novel on banned book lists. It begins, "If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. In the first place, that stuff bores me, and in the second place, my parents would have about two hemorrhages apiece if I told anything pretty personal about them." His constant wry observations about what he encounters, from teachers to phonies (the two of course are not mutually exclusive) capture the essence of the eternal teenage experience of alienation.

Customer Reviews:

A Coward's Narrative..........2007-10-08

For years, friends and family noted the classic, The Catcher in the Rye, as a "must read." I was pleasantly surprised with Salinger's ahead-of-the-times writing of Holden Caufield and his experiences/thoughts with sex, drinking, and his general disenchantment with the world, as he is expelled from prep school. Holden narrates as he bounces around for a few days before heading home to tell his parents.

On some level, readers will relate their own lives to that of Holden's. How could you not? He's depressed, rebellious, and negative. He's a coward, a braggart, a phony, and a wannabe. We've all been like him at times. But that is his whole character and you rarely see another side... only his love for his sibling showed a side of Holden that could be defined as positive.

There is no real payoff or conclusion in the end. You'll find the value of this writing after finishing it, putting it back on the shelf, and thinking about it for a few days. Keep digging, it's there.

Have fun,

David Tobias
Redondo Beach, CA

Must Read.......2007-10-01

Unfortunately this book was not on my reading list for High School. It is a shame because I would have enjoyed it then, just as I enjoyed it now. Anybody can relate to some aspect of this novel. Whether it be growing up, the akward situations that we find ourselves in struggling through adolecence and our teenage years. Bottom line, is great book and everyone should read it at least once in their lifetime.

Bradbury is alive and well.......2007-09-28

This novel is more alive today than ever. Books are not being burned, but no one reads. The effect is the same. The few lucky ones have their favorite books in their heads.

A different perspective.......2007-09-24

Mid-aged now, I had a few spotty memories of this book from my high school years and in my mind's eye it seemed forgettable, but later in life I bought the book and read it again, partly because I wanted to see if I could figure out why John Lennon's murderer was carrying the book when he was arrested. Was there a clue in the story that inspired the twisted killer to attack Lennon? Anyhow, if so, then Chapman was not caught and saved by the Catcher, but instead went entirely off the cliff. And if Chapman envisioned himself as the Catcher, he was wrong. The Catcher in the Rye is a saver not a destroyer.
Although I rate this book five stars it is by far not my favorite, but I would still recommend it to anyone just because it is so popular. I did find it interesting and in my youth I spent a lot of time in New York City and had been to some of the places referenced in the story. When I was a kid growing up on a dairy farm, my cousins and friends and I used to play hide and seek in the cornfields, (Catcher in the Corn) way before we ever heard of Catcher in the Rye. So While reading this book I felt those kind of connections, as in, I felt like I was there in the story at times. But back when I first saw the title Catcher in the Rye, I imagined, (before reading), that it must have been about something in life to watch out for, something that may catch you if you let your guard down, something that might be out to get you. Maybe that's the connection Chapman made. Maybe Chapman didn't actually read the book before he killed. I just hope they keep the guy locked up.
And I, for one, hope they finally get finicky J.D.'s novel made into a movie. By the way, I think it is very healthy to turn off the TV and read books in quiet solitude. I find the best time is before I fall off to sleep, reading can also help to cultivate dreams.
note: I still sorely miss John Lennon.

The book is entertaining. Perhaps a better read when read as a teenager........2007-09-18

The Catcher in the Rye is written in the first person and tells the story of a teenager, HOLDEN CAULFIELD, who is struggling with the normal teenage crisis of misdirection and apathy. I don't remember reading this book in High School. Perhaps it was assigned and I ignored it.

I believe the story would have resonated more with me when I was about Holden's age (16) than it does now. The book is an easy read and the story and characters are very real. Why is it a classic? I don't really know, perhaps it was ahead of its time; perhaps the prose was unconventional. I enjoyed the story but didn't feel much connection with the characters even though Holden reminded me of kids I knew in High School, perhaps even a little bit of me. Enjoy!

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The Emperor Has No Clothes
I Got an A+ On My Paper - But I Hated It
Made me squirm...
SO overrated
He Dies For The Truth ?

The Stranger
Albert Camus
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0679720200
Release Date: 1989-03-13

Amazon.com

The Stranger is not merely one of the most widely read novels of the 20th century, but one of the books likely to outlive it. Written in 1946, Camus's compelling and troubling tale of a disaffected, apparently amoral young man has earned a durable popularity (and remains a staple of U.S. high school literature courses) in part because it reveals so vividly the anxieties of its time. Alienation, the fear of anonymity, spiritual doubt--all could have been given a purely modern inflection in the hands of a lesser talent than Camus, who won the Nobel Prize in 1957 and was noted for his existentialist aesthetic. The remarkable trick of The Stranger, however, is that it's not mired in period philosophy.

The plot is simple. A young Algerian, Meursault, afflicted with a sort of aimless inertia, becomes embroiled in the petty intrigues of a local pimp and, somewhat inexplicably, ends up killing a man. Once he's imprisoned and eventually brought to trial, his crime, it becomes apparent, is not so much the arguably defensible murder he has committed as it is his deficient character. The trial's proceedings are absurd, a parsing of incidental trivialities--that Meursault, for instance, seemed unmoved by his own mother's death and then attended a comic movie the evening after her funeral are two ostensibly damning facts--so that the eventual sentence the jury issues is both ridiculous and inevitable.

Meursault remains a cipher nearly to the story's end--dispassionate, clinical, disengaged from his own emotions. "She wanted to know if I loved her," he says of his girlfriend. "I answered the same way I had the last time, that it didn't mean anything but that I probably didn't." There's a latent ominousness in such observations, a sense that devotion is nothing more than self-delusion. It's undoubtedly true that Meursault exhibits an extreme of resignation; however, his confrontation with "the gentle indifference of the world" remains as compelling as it was when Camus first recounted it. --Ben Guterson

Book Description

Through the story of an ordinary man unwittingly drawn into a senseless murder on an Algerian beach, Camus explored what he termed "the nakedness of man faced with the absurd." First published in 1946; now in a new translation by Matthew Ward.

Customer Reviews:

The Emperor Has No Clothes.......2007-10-07

In summary . . . this automaton-like self-absorbed jerk shoots a guy to death, and the jury correctly finds that it is not self-defense (you read me correctly fellow reviewers. It is NOT self defense to shoot someone laying on the ground that possibly possesses a knife with evil intent. You should simply step back. Society accepts use of deadly force as justified in order to "stop", not recreationally "kill". That is referred to as murder, not self-defense). So, the jury found Msr. Meursault guilty of taking another man's life, unjustifiably, and with intent. I agree. (Do you?)

So anyway, this thick jerk is sent to prison awaiting execution. He doesn't seem to mind very much. His long term future certainly looks bleak since he has decided that there is no God, and he is scoring near zero on the repentence meter. Yes, he is an existentialist and a nihilist.

So much for the renowned Albert Camus. Technically, this book is well written. However, I found it rather boring, only marginally believable, and generally depressing. For me, it was no more "thought-provoking" than observing someone in a cycle of picking and regrowing a scab (inexplicable, but not interesting). There is NO REASON for the acclaim that this novel has garnered (except perhaps that there are academics out there that wish us to believe that this philosophical tripe is truth).

This is an unlikable story about a small unlikable man. Not recommended, but I understand that your teacher may be forcing you to read it. Fear not, it is short. It's a little above average as literature, but written about a fool by a fool.

I Got an A+ On My Paper - But I Hated It.......2007-10-06

I read this book in High School and I hated it. Even to my young 17 year old brain, the concepts of philosophy seemed ludicrous. I guess I must have understood them on some basic level, because like I said, I got an A. But it was a shock to me as well! I understand why a book like this is in an Honors English class. It may be more interesting in the original French.

Made me squirm..........2007-10-01

Nihilism...existentialism...theory of the absurd...I don't which category this book technically falls into, all I can say is that it made me squirm. The protagonist of the novel was a very calm person, quite detached in fact, but ironically it is his calmness which unsettled me.

Is this what life really is all about? Does it have no meaning, no purpose? Are there no morals? No God? I don't know...I'll the philosophers and thinkers argue that. I can't alter my beliefs now, but the book provided me a window into all the things which I don't believe in.

I would certainly recommend it to anyone and everyone.

SO overrated.......2007-09-26

This is a top contender for the worst book ever written. I thought about giving it a tied position with Pamela Anderson's _Star_, but upon reflection I have decided that I would rather read _Star_ again than read _The Stranger_ again, although I would rather be eaten alive by rabid wolverines than do either. This book is so bad that it is painful for me to read it. If I had a time machine, I would pay to have Camus beaten to death on a deserted beach, ultimately preventing this disaster from ever coming into existence.

He Dies For The Truth ?.......2007-08-18

Camus claimed in an interview that the main character who is "the stranger" died for the truth. The reader can make their own judgement. I thought it was more complicated than that.

Albert Camus (1913 - 1960) was a French writer and philosopher. He is often associated with existentialism, but Camus rejected any ideological classification. Camus was a young recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature when he became the first African-born writer to receive the award in 1957. He died in a car crash only three years after receiving the award. He was a social activist and Communist, and fought with the French resistance in WWII. Later he rejected Communism.

I like his work because he combines realism with the rational versus the irrational. He creates an interesting combination of intense and compelling plot along with political and moral ideas. His trademark contribution was his idea of the absurd, "the result of our desire for clarity and meaning within a world and condition that offers neither, which he explained in The Myth of Sisyphus and incorporated into many of his other works, such as The Stranger and The Plague."

The Stranger is short, just over 100 pages. It is about a North African man probably in his late twenties or thirties, called Meursault, and his girl friend Marie, and a neighbor Raymond.

Without giving away the plot, the story follows the reactions of Meursault to the death and the funeral of his mother. He puts on no airs or false fronts, and acts in a way he thinks is honest. Others interpret his emotions as being deeply flawed.

The reader can judge if Meursault is honest or flawed.

I liked the short novel. It has a certain bite to it and it grabs the reader and holds the reader through the whole novel, right to the last page. The story is both unusual and plausible. Camus makes his philosophical point in the 120 pages.

It is an outstanding piece of writing, and it is far less complex and easier to understand than some of his other works.

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A Fine WWI book
Good read, but unfulfilling
Simply Unforgettable
Best book on WWI
All Quiet

All Quiet on the Western Front
Erich Maria Remarque
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 0449213943
Release Date: 1987-03-12

Book Description

Paul Baumer enlisted with his classmates in the German army of World War I. Youthful, enthusiastic, they become soldiers. But despite what they have learned, they break into pieces under the first bombardment in the trenches. And as horrible war plods on year after year, Paul holds fast to a single vow: to fight against the principles of hate that meaninglessly pits young men of the same generation but different uniforms against each other--if only he can come out of the war alive.
"The world has a great writer in Erich Maria Remarque. He is a craftsman of unquestionably first trank, a man who can bend language to his will. Whether he writes of men or of inanimate nature, his touch is sensitive, firm, and sure."
THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

Customer Reviews:

A Fine WWI book.......2007-08-05

This view in the trenches of WW I was memorable for me, having little knowledge of WW I when I read this book. I was expecting more about what led to WW I, but was happy to read the account of the young German soldier who was not involved or terribly informed about the politics. After reading this, I read "Storm of Steel" by Ernst Junger. Remarque spends more time illustrating the ugliness and the horror, which I think is endemic in any war. His gift of description is strong, and is worth reading, but not if you want to know about the grand picture. This is about the nitty gritty daily experiences of war.

Good read, but unfulfilling.......2007-07-30

Somehow this summer became the summer of WWI books for me because I have read both All Quiet and A Farewell to Arms over the past several weeks. It was interesting to read both of these books back-to-back because of the different tones and writing styles of both authors. All Quiet left me feeling unfullfilled because it really doesn't have much of a plot and the characters are underdeveloped and many are forgotten at the end. Additionally, it was like the ending just happened, again without much development or resolution. Nonetheless, it painted a pretty effective picture of life in the trenches during WWI. A Farewell to Arms is much more romantic and a more fulfilling book however.

Simply Unforgettable.......2007-07-20

" We are at rest five miles behind the front". So begins one of the world's great literary treasures. What could I say that hasn't already been written ? I have read this novel since I was in grade school , and have revisited it every few years for the past five decades. As I grow older and think of comrades and friends now long gone , I can appeciate it's sublime beauty as the greatest anti-war novel ever written.

Best book on WWI.......2007-06-19

Every war has that one book since the Industrial Revolution has inspired at least one great anti-war piece of literature. This book is probably it for WWI. It focuses on Paul, a young German who goes to serve in the German army during WWI. The book begins with him in school being fed propaganda about the glory of war. The book ends with his death in the hated trenches. In between, he loses his innocence, nerve and eventually his sanity. He, and we the reader, witness incredible pain, suffering, tragedy, and in doing so, come to understand that war is always fought by the common people, but rarely for their good. This book is unique in that the protagonist is a German soldier, rare for an English language classic. But regardless of the nationality, the experiences here were common to all soldiers. I highly enjoyed this book, and consider it the best fiction work about WWI.

All Quiet.......2007-06-07

All Quiet on the Western Front provides a glimpse into World War I from the German's perspective. My favorite aspect of the book was that at no point did it glorify war, which is something I tend to find problematic in film adaptations of war. Brilliant piece though it's disheartening as one of the classes from the local high school are reading it for school - to say the least from my experience with them at work, I don't think they're as nearly excited about it as I am.

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grim, dark, gripping
Leave It to Beaver on Acid!
Remarkable and somewhat overlooked masterpiece
A classic!
It cuts deep and it cuts true

Revolutionary Road
Richard Yates
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0375708448
Release Date: 2000-04-25

Amazon.com

The rediscovery and rejuvenation of Richard Yates's 1961 novel Revolutionary Road is due in large part to its continuing emotional and moral resonance for an early 21st-century readership. April and Frank Wheeler are a young, ostensibly thriving couple living with their two children in a prosperous Connecticut suburb in the mid-1950s. However, like the characters in John Updike's similarly themed Couples, the self-assured exterior masks a creeping frustration at their inability to feel fulfilled in their relationships or careers. Frank is mired in a well-paying but boring office job and April is a housewife still mourning the demise of her hoped-for acting career. Determined to identify themselves as superior to the mediocre sprawl of suburbanites who surround them, they decide to move to France where they will be better able to develop their true artistic sensibilities, free of the consumerist demands of capitalist America. As their relationship deteriorates into an endless cycle of squabbling, jealousy and recriminations, their trip and their dreams of self-fulfillment are thrown into jeopardy.

Yates's incisive, moving, and often very funny prose weaves a tale that is at once a fascinating period piece and a prescient anticipation of the way we live now. Many of the cultural motifs seem quaintly dated--the early-evening cocktails, Frank's illicit lunch breaks with his secretary, the way Frank isn't averse to knocking April around when she speaks out of turn--and yet the quiet desperation at thwarted dreams reverberates as much now as it did years ago. Like F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, this novel conveys, with brilliant erudition, the exacting cost of chasing the American dream. --Jane Morris, Amazon.co.uk

Book Description

With a new introduction by Richard Ford

"A deft, ironic, beautiful novel that deserves to be a classic." --William Styron

From the moment of its publication in 1961, Revolutionary Road was hailed as a masterpiece of realistic fiction and as the most evocative portrayal of the opulent desolation of the American suburbs. It's the story of Frank and April Wheeler, a bright, beautiful, and talented couple who have lived on the assumption that greatness is only just around the corner. With heartbreaking compassion and remorseless clarity, Richard Yates shows how Frank and April mortgage their spiritual birthright, betraying not only each other, but their best selves.

In his introduction to this edition, novelist Richard Ford pays homage to the lasting influence and enduring power of Revolutionary Road.

Customer Reviews:

grim, dark, gripping.......2007-09-04

Richard Yates' did not believe in the resiliency of the human spirit, and Revolutionary Road bears this out; Yates has some sympathy for his characters, but this does not prevent him from piling petty horror after petty horror upon them. Yates seems to say at the outset: these are the terms for life, and there is nothing you can do to surmount them; nothing in American works anymore and there is no way to gain a sense of authenticity or regenerate the self. Yates' world is Calvinistic without the religion. So, this novel is a grim catalog of redundant failure. The prose is precise and oddly dispassionate, so there is the impulse to keep turning the page, perhaps to see what horror will occur next. Revolutionary Road is a curious novel with a dark vision which most readers would never wish to possess.

Leave It to Beaver on Acid!.......2007-08-31

Richard Yates now gets his due. John Updike had ripped him off. Read Couples after Revolutionary Road and see what I mean, but let's face it: Yates is head and shoulders above the latest Post-Modern's whoever. No, Yates was a storywriter in the Realism School. He reminds me a bit of a contemporary, Walker Percy (The Moviegoer) Where Percy's character's find or at least try to find God in 1950's New Orleans's, Yates', April and Frank never actually get a foot into church. Their New York City Suburb is a purgatory of lawn mowers and suburban strivers. The 1950's dream, the migration into country homes, a cookie cutter cul-de-sac, it becomes The Hell. A bit romantic or over fevered this distrust of The American Dream? Yes, but it seemed so real in the dark crevices of the Eisenhower years. The intellectuals had read The Great Gatsby and Fitzgerald seemed to be a sage though his characters were definitely not the middle class. By the 50's there was the new weekend-leisure class, a poor cousin of Fitzgerald's protagonists. The wishful world envisioned by April (not unlike Gatsby's muse), a girl that just can't seem to get to that next level where art and life come together in exquisite excellence; the disillusioned mother won't bring a baby into the holocaust of husband, home, and Leave It to Beaver. Ten years later, everyone dropped acid and dropped out.

Remarkable and somewhat overlooked masterpiece.......2007-08-23

This is a work of stunning excellence. A remarkable portrait of American middle class life which, although set in the 1950's, has perhaps even greater relevance for our own time. This dark and disturbing novel reveals the spiritual poverty of life in our middle-class, consumer society and provides many, many opportunities for self examination. This is a work that invites re-reading again and again.

A classic!.......2007-08-23

I bought this book after hearing a review of it on NPR. I found the writing very insightful and feel that, in spite of it being set in 1955, it resonates with suburban life today. It is very powerful and is highly recommended.

It cuts deep and it cuts true.......2007-08-23

On the surface Revolutionary Road might appear dated - the pre-dinner cocktails, everyone smoking, Frank works for a company that is about to embark on making...computers! - but dig a little deeper, and you will find that this novel is timeless. Yates unflinchingly peels apart what it is like to be in your thirties, unsure of who you are and what you're supposed to be doing, convinced that you're not living the life you were intended to lead. The novel is also a brilliant character study of two people trapped in a marriage and in a life that neither wants, and how their self-deception leads to self-destruction. The writing here is fantastic - it's urbane and cuts deep, yet is completely accessible and is full of sharp, caustic wit. The novel's plot and themes are largely bleak and dark, but it's impossible to read Revolutionary Road and not find some light creeping in. Recommended for anyone in their late twenties or thirties.

A Confederacy of Dunces (Evergreen Book)

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imho....overated due to the book's backstory
A Confederacy of Dunces
Not as funny as they make it out to be
Hard to get into, but once you do...
Brilliant!

A Confederacy of Dunces (Evergreen Book)
John Kennedy Toole
Manufacturer: Grove Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0802130208

Amazon.com

"A green hunting cap squeezed the top of the fleshy balloon of a head. The green earflaps, full of large ears and uncut hair and the fine bristles that grew in the ears themselves, stuck out on either side like turn signals indicating two directions at once. Full, pursed lips protruded beneath the bushy black moustache and, at their corners, sank into little folds filled with disapproval and potato chip crumbs."

Meet Ignatius J. Reilly, the hero of John Kennedy Toole's tragicomic tale, A Confederacy of Dunces. This 30-year-old medievalist lives at home with his mother in New Orleans, pens his magnum opus on Big Chief writing pads he keeps hidden under his bed, and relays to anyone who will listen the traumatic experience he once had on a Greyhound Scenicruiser bound for Baton Rouge. ("Speeding along in that bus was like hurtling into the abyss.") But Ignatius's quiet life of tyrannizing his mother and writing his endless comparative history screeches to a halt when he is almost arrested by the overeager Patrolman Mancuso--who mistakes him for a vagrant--and then involved in a car accident with his tipsy mother behind the wheel. One thing leads to another, and before he knows it, Ignatius is out pounding the pavement in search of a job.

Over the next several hundred pages, our hero stumbles from one adventure to the next. His stint as a hotdog vendor is less than successful, and he soon turns his employers at the Levy Pants Company on their heads. Ignatius's path through the working world is populated by marvelous secondary characters: the stripper Darlene and her talented cockatoo; the septuagenarian secretary Miss Trixie, whose desperate attempts to retire are constantly, comically thwarted; gay blade Dorian Greene; sinister Miss Lee, proprietor of the Night of Joy nightclub; and Myrna Minkoff, the girl Ignatius loves to hate. The many subplots that weave through A Confederacy of Dunces are as complicated as anything you'll find in a Dickens novel, and just as beautifully tied together in the end. But it is Ignatius--selfish, domineering, and deluded, tragic and comic and larger than life--who carries the story. He is a modern-day Quixote beset by giants of the modern age. His fragility cracks the shell of comic bluster, revealing a deep streak of melancholy beneath the antic humor. John Kennedy Toole committed suicide in 1969 and never saw the publication of his novel. Ignatius Reilly is what he left behind, a fitting memorial to a talented and tormented life. --Alix Wilber

Book Description

The best-selling, Pulitzer Prize-winning classic hailed by The New York Times Book Review as "a masterwork . . . the novel astonishes with its inventiveness . . . it is nothing less than a grand comic fugue." A Confederacy of Dunces is an American comic masterpiece. John Kennedy Toole's hero, one Ignatius J. Reilly, is "huge, obese, fractious, fastidious, a latter-day Gargantua, a Don Quixote of the French Quarter. His story bursts with wholly original characters, denizens of New Orleans' lower depths, incredibly true-to-life dialogue, and the zaniest series of high and low comic adventures" (Henry Kisor, Chicago Sun-Times).

Customer Reviews:

imho....overated due to the book's backstory.......2007-10-08

I only got two-thirds of the way through this book because, basically, it just kept spinning its wheels. Also, the title character is 99% unsympathetic. He's such a friggin' ego-centric dolt that I simply stopped caring about anything to do with him. Yes, there are very funny parts...but not that many. I really feel this book has been hyped due to the fact that the book didn't get published until twenty years after the author's death (he committed suicide at least partly due to the novel not being published in his lifetime) and that the persistence of his mother in getting it printed really added to the book's mystique...which, obviously, has NOTHING to do with the actual book itself. I feel that the book would have never even been considered for a Pulitzer (which it won in the early '80s) had it been published in the author's lifetime. I actually would give this book two and a half stars, but that option isn't available.

A Confederacy of Dunces.......2007-10-04

This is a wonderful read. You take a fantastic and funny journey with a cast of characters that jump off the pages into the room where you are reading. I recommend this book as a gift, for a book club, for anytime. It is one you will read again and again.

Not as funny as they make it out to be.......2007-10-03

This book, i think, is generally over rated. Don't get me wrong, it is funny and memorable. However it was awarded the Pulitzer posthumously and I feel that it does not rank up there with the best work produced in the last century. It is likely that Toole might have produced such a book had he continued writing though. Perhaps his suicide has granted the book an aura of pathos that has helped it along the path to greatness.
The book tends to make caricatures out of the characters, including Ignatius (who is the only real character in the book). Because the book focuses on the personal scale of things, this defect in itself hurts it the most.
Would I read it again, probably yes, but I would have enjoyed it more had i not expected so much of it.

Hard to get into, but once you do..........2007-10-01

... It is worthwhile. This took me several weeks to become interested in because the main character, Ignatius, is initially unlikable and bizarre. I can see why this book was rejected when the author was alive; it is very unusual and not immediately gratifying. All I can say is read it.

Brilliant!.......2007-09-30

This is probably one of my all-time favorite books for reasons that are far too many. It is EXTREMELY well crafted and possesses an amazing sense of humor and satire; making it a classic. I was amazed to find a book with such brilliant humor and at the same time a very deep philosophy. A Confederacy of Dunces is more than just a laugh; but of course the true meaning of the book is only visible to those who seek--as with any masterpiece. The only downside is that this is the only work that John Kennedy Toole has left behind.

Average customer rating:

John Welte's Review
required reading for teens
Rather "Piggy" then "Fatty" indeed...
Linguistic tour de force
complete recording of a tedious novel

Lord of the Flies
William Golding
Manufacturer: Perigee Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 0399501487

Amazon.com

William Golding's classic tale about a group of English schoolboys who are plane-wrecked on a deserted island is just as chilling and relevant today as when it was first published in 1954. At first, the stranded boys cooperate, attempting to gather food, make shelters, and maintain signal fires. Overseeing their efforts are Ralph, "the boy with fair hair," and Piggy, Ralph's chubby, wisdom-dispensing sidekick whose thick spectacles come in handy for lighting fires. Although Ralph tries to impose order and delegate responsibility, there are many in their number who would rather swim, play, or hunt the island's wild pig population. Soon Ralph's rules are being ignored or challenged outright. His fiercest antagonist is Jack, the redheaded leader of the pig hunters, who manages to lure away many of the boys to join his band of painted savages. The situation deteriorates as the trappings of civilization continue to fall away, until Ralph discovers that instead of being hunters, he and Piggy have become the hunted: "He forgot his words, his hunger and thirst, and became fear; hopeless fear on flying feet." Golding's gripping novel explores the boundary between human reason and animal instinct, all on the brutal playing field of adolescent competition. --Jennifer Hubert

Book Description

14.5 Million copies sold to date

The classic, startling, and perennially bestselling portrait of human nature-now available as a Premium Edition with a stunning new cover and re-set, easy-to-read text.

Customer Reviews:

John Welte's Review.......2007-08-18

The Lord of the Flies was a book that I was required to read at the start of tenth grade. When I started reading the book I wasn't interested right away. I thought the book lacked any action, and I couldn't identify with any of the characters, personally. Honestly, I kept reading because of obligation. Eventually I realized it was a good book. Towards the second half of the book the author added action and the characters evolved. Arguments took place among the boys which started fighting and drama. When the story started picking up it had me excited until the very end. Overall, I would recommend this book for anyone looking for a great adventure book.

required reading for teens.......2007-07-08

Like most everyone else, I read this book because it was required reading in ninth or tenth grade. I recently reread it with my thirteen year old son and discussed it with him. For him, as I suspect it would be for most young readers, it was a magnificent introductory illustration of the distinction between the literal and the metaphoric in literature.

Rather "Piggy" then "Fatty" indeed..........2007-07-02

I'll admit i'm a late fan of this novel, never having the enjoyment of being assigned this in school. However i'm pleased in my adult life to possibly have a greater appreciation of it. This is truly a timeless story of the savage within us all and how even without a civilization, all different aspects of a society can be portrayed, even in the innocence of shipwrecked children. Ralph serves as our center, imperfect at best, yet constantly trying to do the greater good. Jack is his id, a leader by worth but not in ideology or action, our ego. Piggy is our brain and conscience, however fragile and annoyingly persistent. Roger is our wrath. An unleashed, unsympathetic, unbridled purely sickening rage. Simon is our curiosity and independence, He carrys our emotions and our feelings.

The story itself begins with Ralph as the elected leader of the group of young children, however, the lead hunter, Jack eventually finds no solice in this decision and it becomes 2 camps at odds on an island. Thats the short version, which does no justice to the complexity of the story nor the incredible imagery given by the author. In this story, children do terrible things to children, yet the degeneration into savages is so gradual you can understand there blind lust for adventure and victory overall else, especially when that same idea has been behind every war known to man.

I titled this review after a line from the novel, because i think it secretly underlined alot of what the story was about. Some Rules may not be fun, but the consequences without are far worse. This can be applied to so many aspects in life. As i think i will carry this with me a long time coming.

Linguistic tour de force.......2007-06-30

As many already know, this book contains a vast number of symbolisms and has many allusions to foreign themes (eg. ideological, other novels, biblical) and ideas. But what is it other than its allegorical and abovementioned quality that makes it remarkable? Here, I attempt to elucidate the work in other aspects other than its dark theme and storyline(which countless other reviews have already touched upon).

One of the strongest qualities of the book is its language. In the story, the sheer vividness of the landscape is written with great intensity, movements are described with precision and in between are interspaced events and dialogue that many times, because certain events are not directly mentioned or written, requires much effort to infer. That is why I suppose many have found it frustrating and a tedium to read.

As an example of description, when Golding describes the waves and how looking towards it sometimes creates a mirage, 'Strange things happened at midday. The glittering sea moved apart in planes...Sometimes, land loomed where there was no land and flicked out like a bubble...'. Despite the work's linguistic difficulty, especially for younger readers, the language is a work of art, and much concentration is required. Younger readers, however, will enjoy the story's quick pace and narrative.

With its combination of linguistic complexity, far reaching symbolism and allegory etc., the strength of this work lies in its depth and power. The bleak, pessimistic portrait of humanity is brought about through the boys and their virgin attempts at civility on a remote island and as the struggle of Ralph and Piggy against Jack and his gang is played out, many philosophical questions are raised. Is humanity innately fallible to primitism? How does society establish order? Does youth affect all this?

All said, Lord of the Flies is a brilliantly bleak, lustrously prosed, deeply discomforting portrait of mankind. No wonder it is recommended reading for so many high schools and colleges.

Note: Lord of the Flies may be a great piece of dystopian work, but there are some which will inevitably exceed it, notably the first two below:
Nineteen Eighty-Four Brave New World Gulliver's Travels (Penguin Classics) Utopia (Penguin Classics) Herland, The Yellow Wall-Paper, and Selected Writings (Penguin Classics)

complete recording of a tedious novel.......2007-06-29

Listening to this novel doesn't improve it. You get the added bonus track of Golding groaning on and on and on about how he got the inspiration for this overly simplistic morality tale. With so much good literature out in the world, if the house catches fire, leave this one behind. Sucks to my as-mar.

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The Great Divorce
A dash of fantasy, a dash of truth, vintage C.S. Lewis
An Intriguing Story
Yet, it IS a plausible picture of the afterlife...
Entertaining, but don't try and take too much theology from it.

The Great Divorce
C. S. Lewis
Manufacturer: HarperOne
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Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0060652950
Release Date: 2001-02-05

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The Great Divorce is C.S. Lewis's Divine Comedy: the narrator bears strong resemblance to Lewis (by way of Dante); his Virgil is the fantasy writer George MacDonald; and upon boarding a bus in a nondescript neighborhood, the narrator is taken to Heaven and Hell. The book's primary message is presented with almost oblique tidiness--"There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, in the end, 'Thy will be done.'" However, the narrator's descriptions of sin and temptation will hit quite close to home for many readers. Lewis has a genius for describing the intricacies of vanity and self-deception, and this book is tremendously persistent in forcing its reader to consider the ultimate consequences of everyday pettiness. --Michael Joseph Gross

Book Description

C. S. Lewis takes us on a profound journey through both heaven and hell in this engaging allegorical tale. Using his extraordinary descriptive powers, Lewis introduces us to supernatural beings who will change the way we think about good and evil.

Customer Reviews:

The Great Divorce.......2007-09-30

This is one of my favorite books. I've read it several times and I've had to buy new copies because I keep giving it away. The Great Divorce starts off a little slowly, but you have to hang in there through the first couple of chapters. It is NOT a book about marital divorce, but rather about letting go of the things you think you want or need in order to gain that which is of much greater value.

A dash of fantasy, a dash of truth, vintage C.S. Lewis.......2007-09-26

As one reviewer noted, many readers will not pick up a C.S. Lewis creation beyond "Chronicles of Narnia," "Mere Christianity," and "The Screwtape Letters." I was one of them, but I'm very thankful for having to check out a copy of Lewis' "The Great Divorce." Like his Narnia tales, there is a dash of both fantasy and truth in this volume, and the mix is delicate but profound. Built as a story of a bus ride to Heaven and Hell, "The Great Divorce" weaves a tapestry of assorted characters, facing immortal choices about their own harrowing predicaments. While Lewis' landscape visualizing the realities of Heaven and Hell are of course conjectural, each character's scene and dialogue with the Solid Spirits of Heaven are assuredly not. It's like looking in the mirror - there is someone who looks exactly like you, warts and all. It's a small book, something you can finish within a day. I still thought it was like a smack in the face, something we need in our materialistic and fickle lives now and again.

Pride, lust, idolatry, SIN, it's all represented here in the great style of Lewis' magical blend of imagination and vivid imagery. The book, of course, ends in hope, in salvation. As the mystical Teacher who advises the main character Lewis says, Hell would not be big enough to do any harm to the Real World, or the Truth.

An Intriguing Story.......2007-09-19

C.S. Lewis' very short book is a fictional work that follows the journey of a group of people in Hell who take a trip to Heaven. Like his "Screwtape Letters," this book provides some excellent insights into the psychology of humankind.

During this trip to Heaven, the inhabitants of Hell are given a chance to repent and enter the kingdom of God. Each person upon arrival is eventually greeted by a person from Heaven who tries to convince the unrepentant to receive salvation. It is almost painful to read as these inhabitants of Hell steadfastly refuse to repent. It is painful to see the characters accept Hell and reject Heaven, but it is even more painful because it is easy for us to see our own flaws represented by these unrepentant people.

Lewis' construction of Hell as a place where the unrepentant wander around and never achieve satisfaction or fulfillment is conspicuously lacking searing flames and torturing demons. And although Lewis may not have meant for "The Great Divorce" to be a systematic description of the nature of Heaven and Hell, I think that he is certainly on to something. The vision of Hell found in this book is, I think, closer to the reality of Hell than the traditional Dante-esque version of torture and pain. But the primary accomplishment of "The Great Divorce" is that it shows us the psychology of unbelief, even when manifested in ourselves.

Yet, it IS a plausible picture of the afterlife..........2007-09-08

This little book is a total joy to read. I know that the author makes it very clear that one should not suppose that he is factually presenting details of the afterlife, yet, in the end he has created a most satisfying image of a plausible afterlife. As for the title, he is referring to the poet-mystic William Blake's Marriage of Heaven and Hell. He points out that this is a synthesis that can never be, for to do so would compromise the absolute Goodness of Heaven, thereby making a Hell of both. Perhaps there can one day be a marriage of Heaven and Earth (thereby showing both to really have been Heaven all along), but never of Heaven and Hell.

I loved the imagery of Hell being very much like a never-ending city on Earth where it is always twilight and eternal night always on the verge. Yet, it is not a crowded city for people keep moving apart because they cannot stand each other's presence. That's just it. People dwell in Hell by their own choice. It is the obsessions that separate them from God and the highest reality that keep them from leaving. It is even shown that such higher impulses as love and pity, if unhealthily indulged in for their own sake and for nothing higher or transcendent, can keep you in Hell. Yet, this Hell is also Purgatory for those who workout their obsessions. In fact, there is a regular bus service to Heaven for fieldtrips that serve just that purpose (I always suspected that the omnibus originated in Hades.)

As for Heaven, it is perpetually just the moment before dawn and eternal day. The idea that Heaven is actually more substantial than Hell, or Earth, is reasonable, since it is after all the more Real of the two being closer to the Creator. Indeed, the visitors from Hell appear as pale and insubstantial deformed ghosts who find the adamantine hardness and density of the higher plane physically painful (even walking upon the grass.) The residents of the realm however are radiant spirits who do everything that they can to point out the mistakes and illusions that the ghostly visitors still cling to- and which are the only thing keeping them from traveling higher up and farther in to the one true goal. The most detailed and believable of these tutelary spirits is Lewis' own spriritual mentor, George Macdonald.

Entertaining, but don't try and take too much theology from it........2007-08-16

I gave this book three stars because while it is entertaining, there is a significant potential for people to try and get theology from it, which for the most part I don't recommend. The author makes sure to make that point at the end of the book, though. But I'm sure it's too late for a lot of people by then.

The primary theological point that C.S. Lewis is actually intending to make is that one goes to hell as a consequence of rejecting God and "loving" self. It is the person's rejection of God, not the other way around. However, in trying to make this point in a novel, a lot of the theology seems to get messed up.

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The perfect book for high school reading
Good delivery
A HEMINGWAY CLASSIC ! ( the story is fascinating, and the symbolism offers wisdom)
Hemigway at His Best
Short but Good Enough

The Old Man and The Sea
Ernest Hemingway
Manufacturer: Scribner
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Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0684801221

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Here, for a change, is a fish tale that actually does honor to the author. In fact The Old Man and the Sea revived Ernest Hemingway's career, which was foundering under the weight of such postwar stinkers as Across the River and into the Trees. It also led directly to his receipt of the Nobel Prize in 1954 (an award Hemingway gladly accepted, despite his earlier observation that "no son of a bitch that ever won the Nobel Prize ever wrote anything worth reading afterwards"). A half century later, it's still easy to see why. This tale of an aged Cuban fisherman going head-to-head (or hand-to-fin) with a magnificent marlin encapsulates Hemingway's favorite motifs of physical and moral challenge. Yet Santiago is too old and infirm to partake of the gun-toting machismo that disfigured much of the author's later work: "The brown blotches of the benevolent skin cancer the sun brings from its reflection on the tropic sea were on his cheeks. The blotches ran well down the sides of his face and his hands had the deep-creased scars from handling heavy fish on the cords." Hemingway's style, too, reverts to those superb snapshots of perception that won him his initial fame:

Just before it was dark, as they passed a great island of Sargasso weed that heaved and swung in the light sea as though the ocean were making love with something under a yellow blanket, his small line was taken by a dolphin. He saw it first when it jumped in the air, true gold in the last of the sun and bending and flapping wildly in the air.

If a younger Hemingway had written this novella, Santiago most likely would have towed the enormous fish back to port and posed for a triumphal photograph--just as the author delighted in doing, circa 1935. Instead his prize gets devoured by a school of sharks. Returning with little more than a skeleton, he takes to his bed and, in the very last line, cements his identification with his creator: "The old man was dreaming about the lions." Perhaps there's some allegory of art and experience floating around in there somewhere--but The Old Man and the Sea was, in any case, the last great catch of Hemingway's career. --James Marcus

Book Description

The Old Man and the Sea is one of Hemingway's most enduring works. Told in language of great simplicity and power, it is the story of an old Cuban fisherman, down on his luck, and his supreme ordeal -- a relentless, agonizing battle with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream. Here Hemingway recasts, in strikingly contemporary style, the classic theme of courage in the face of defeat, of personal triumph won from loss. Written in 1952, this hugely successful novella confirmed his power and presence in the literary world and played a large part in his winning the 1954 Nobel Prize for Literature.

Customer Reviews:

The perfect book for high school reading.......2007-10-11

This is my first Hemingway story, and was pretty pleased with it. I have always been told that his writing gets right to the point and that he's not a "flowery" writer, so I wasn't surprised to see how long this story was. On the surface, the story was very exciting, even more so at the end when he battles the sharks. As I was reading it, I would get so excited whenever he ran across another shark I didn't even want to read those parts. I was really rooting for Santiago, and felt totally gypped at the end! In terms of reading the story for just "more" than the story, I found that the themes are very easy to identify and talk about so that would make this a great "discussion" novella, and it's no surprise that this is a frequently read book in school. This is an excellent starter book for those who are interested in reading a story for more than face value. It's not too long and it's themes and symbolism aren't too vague to understand.

Good delivery.......2007-10-01

It was a good product and it was delivered on time. The only thing i would like to recommend is that the next time stick my name on the box.

A HEMINGWAY CLASSIC ! ( the story is fascinating, and the symbolism offers wisdom).......2007-09-27

Ernest Hemingway's Pulitzer Prize winning novel, The Old Man And The Sea is the story of an old Cuban fisherman named Santiago, and the several days and nights he spends alone in his skiff, catching, killing, and bringing to shore, a large (bigger than his skiff) Marlin. Santiago has gone eighty-four days without a catch, and on this day he goes out farther than he normally does, and catches his prize (or maybe it's not a prize at all). The man-against-nature aspect of the story is intriguing in itself, but I've always seen this book as a wise parable that teaches a lesson, or even several lessons, in life. The fish is a symbol of a sought after prize, and the sea is a symbol for life itself, the old man has gone out too far, and so on (there's much, much more, but I don't want to give the story away). It actually can be interpreted many different ways, and because of this, it's like piecing together a different puzzle each time you read it. I have read this interesting story many times in my life (I've just finished reading it again), and I always find new ways to interpret it, and new ways to enjoy it. It's only 120+ pages, so it's a book that can be read without a great deal of labor. Hemingway's vivid imagery of the ocean and early 1950s Cuba is fascinating, and the simple, honest, and humble lives of Santiago and his devoted young friend, Manolin are refreshing and heartwarming. The Old Man And The Sea is a book that I have read for years, and one that I will continue to read for many years to come.

Hemigway at His Best.......2007-09-13

Having read and enjoyed most of Hemingway's major works, I recently decided to re-read this one. It was a wonderful decision.

"The Old Man and the Sea" excels at several levels. On the surface, it is a fine story about an old, down on his luck fisherman catching a huge marlin. But it also has deeper meanings including man against the elements, man fighting failure, man's relationship with nature etc. etc. It is also a story well and efficiently told. One of the great books of all time in only 120+ pages. It deserved the Pulitzer and all the other accolades it has received.

Short but Good Enough.......2007-09-06

Are all of Ernest Hemingway's books following For Whom the Bell Tolls that bad? No, and The Old Man and the Sea justifies that answer. This is the story of an old Cuban fisherman, Santiago, who has not caught any fish for eighty-four days and is seen by the other fishermen as unlucky. Even the boy that often fishes with him, Manolin, is not allowed to do so anymore by his father's authority, but still helps him out when he is not fishing. The old man goes out onto the Gulf Stream to make some catches and eventually has an arduous struggle with a large marlin. I am not going to give off any big spoilers (for now at least) in this introduction, but I will say one thing: this is a story about how life can reek of misfortunes but in the end, make prosperity.
Hemingway's novels do not just happen as any ordinary fiction based on some random idea, but rather they are inspired by his real-life experiences. What is The Old Man and the Sea based off of? It is based off two things: his time living in Cuba in 1940 and his favorite past experiences: sailing and fishing. The old man, Santiago, is believed to be based off of Cuban fisherman, Gregorio Fuentes. As another fact, The Old Man and the Sea - Santiago's story - was previously intended for a bigger project of Hemingway's: "The Sea Book."
Hemingway has a very unique way of fleshing out the book's situations with words. For most of the book, the old man is out at sea, alone with nobody to talk to, but does that mean he does not talk at all? No, it does not. Often at times, he will talk to himself, usually talking to his own appendages almost as if they had their own degree of sentience. For example, he would say to his arm, "How do you feel, hand?" (Hemingway 58) when it felt pain and then say, "I'll eat some more for you" (59) when he eats some of his recently caught fish to replenish his arms strength for bigger, upcoming catches. He also talks to the fish he has caught or is going to catch, whether they are dead or alive. He communicates with the marlin in his vicious struggle as if it were a sapient creature.
*Warning! Spoilers Ahead!*
Even after the monstrous fish is caught, he still communicates with it, and forms a spiritual bond with his prize. This is evident during the shark attack, which may have been another great battle for the old man, but results in the loss of most of the marlin's edible parts. He feels that he has failed to protect the fish, which was like a brother to him.
*Spoilers end here*
The Old Man and the Sea is a book I would recommend for anyone that usually has poor reading comprehension skills, like me for instance. In fact, I would recommend it for just about anyone. This book is fairly short but interesting enough to keep you engaged, though if you are reading this for school, you may be compelled to take day-to-day breaks with it. Also, this book is not divided into chapters; it is just one chapter the length of the whole book, so it might be a little hard to know when the best time to take a break is. If you think books of this size are just for pre-high school kids, I would say you are bit too judgmental. As they say not to judge a book by its cover, I should also say not to judge a book by its size. If you just started reading this novel, I will say it should take less than a week if you are not too break-heavy. As this is Hemingway's last major novel, Hemingway's literary career sure did end successfully.

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I loved the book and also, I love buy from Amazon.
Painfully poignant
Keeps me laughing
Favorite Book of All Time
What a story!

Catch-22
Joseph Heller
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0684833395

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There was a time when reading Joseph Heller's classic satire on the murderous insanity of war was nothing less than a rite of passage. Echoes of Yossarian, the wise-ass bombardier who was too smart to die but not smart enough to find a way out of his predicament, could be heard throughout the counterculture. As a result, it's impossible not to consider Catch-22 to be something of a period piece. But 40 years on, the novel's undiminished strength is its looking-glass logic. Again and again, Heller's characters demonstrate that what is commonly held to be good, is bad; what is sensible, is nonsense.

Yossarian says, "You're talking about winning the war, and I am talking about winning the war and keeping alive."
"Exactly," Clevinger snapped smugly. "And which do you think is more important?"
"To whom?" Yossarian shot back. "It doesn't make a damn bit of difference who wins the war to someone who's dead."
"I can't think of another attitude that could be depended upon to give greater comfort to the enemy."
"The enemy," retorted Yossarian with weighted precision, "is anybody who's going to get you killed, no matter which side he's on."
Mirabile dictu, the book holds up post-Reagan, post-Gulf War. It's a good thing, too. As long as there's a military, that engine of lethal authority, Catch-22 will shine as a handbook for smart-alecky pacifists. It's an utterly serious and sad, but damn funny book.

Book Description

Catch-22 is like no other novel. It is one of the funniest books ever written, a keystone work in American literature, and even added a new term to the dictionary.

At the heart of Catch-22 resides the incomparable, malingering bombardier, Yossarian, a hero endlessly inventive in his schemes to save his skin from the horrible chances of war. His efforts are perfectly understandable because as he furiously scrambles, thousands of people he hasn't even met are trying to kill him. His problem is Colonel Cathcart, who keeps raising the number of missions the men must fly to complete their service. Yet if Yossarian makes any attempts to excuse himself from the perilous missions that he is committed to flying, he is trapped by the Great Loyalty Oath Crusade, the hilariously sinister bureaucratic rule from which the book takes its title: a man is considered insane if he willingly continues to fly dangerous combat missions, but if he makes the necessary formal request to be relieved of such missions, the very act of making the request proves that he is sane and therefore ineligible to be relieved.

Catch-22 is a microcosm of the twentieth-century world as it might look to some one dangerously sane -- a masterpiece of our time.

Customer Reviews:

I loved the book and also, I love buy from Amazon........2007-10-11

I truly loved the book. I have wanted to read it for along time and thanks to Amazon, I did.

Great Job, Amazon.

Painfully poignant.......2007-10-06

It seems most criticism of this book on the site asserts claims of dull repetitiveness and trite anti-war arguments. Even Yossarian however admits that the war against Germany had to be fought (of course to know this you would have had to get past the first hundred pages as so few of the critics have).
The book is about capitalism, relationships, friendship, duty, service, love and the eternal paradox inherent in each. There is something human in this book that touches us as the reader in the depths of their humanity and throws us naked from the tree of knowledge (and good and evil too!) into the world around us. Enjoy the fall!

Keeps me laughing.......2007-09-26

This book is absolutely hilarious. I didn't expect that I would like it, but I have found it extremely enjoyable. Despite the age of the book, the humor is pretty relevant considering the situation of the world today. This is definitely turning into one of my favorite books.

Favorite Book of All Time.......2007-09-25

Simply brilliant. Requires some effort, but it is so worth it. Amazingly ironic and truthful throughout, I can read this masterpiece again and again. Highly highly recommended.

What a story!.......2007-09-22

Catch 22 was written before MASH became a TV show. This book has action and tells what goes on when our soldiers are not fighting. Make love,not war!

Average customer rating:

On the Road
Almost as bad as Catcher in the Rye......
Jack is a master of prose and plot
Disappointed--Did I Miss Something???
Not much in it, sadly....

On the Road
Jack Kerouac
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
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ASIN: 0140042598

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On The Road, the most famous of Jack Kerouac's works, is not only the soul of the Beat movement and literature, but one of the most important novels of the century. Like nearly all of Kerouac's writing, On The Road is thinly fictionalized autobiography, filled with a cast made of Kerouac's real life friends, lovers, and fellow travelers. Narrated by Sal Paradise, one of Kerouac's alter-egos, On the Road is a cross-country bohemian odyssey that not only influenced writing in the years since its 1957 publication but penetrated into the deepest levels of American thought and culture.

Book Description

MAXnotes offer a fresh look at masterpieces of literature, presented in a lively and interesting fashion. Written by literary experts who currently teach the subject, MAXnotes will enhance your understanding and enjoyment of the work. MAXnotes are designed to stimulate independ ent thought about the literary work by raising various issues and thought-provoking ideas and questions. MAXnotes cover the essentials of what one should know about each work, including an overall summary, character lists, an explanation and discussion of the plot, the work's historical context, illustrations to convey the mood of the work, and a biography of the author. Each chapter is individually summarized and analyzed, and has study questions and answers.

Customer Reviews:

On the Road.......2007-10-04

Boring and way too repetitious for my taste. No real story line that I could make out. No character depth on any of the major players, including the author.

Almost as bad as Catcher in the Rye.............2007-09-27

This book is a mediocrity. It is readable and fluent, but there is no real substance, either intellectual or historical. Its appeal puzzles me, but I guess I can see how it might "speak" to non-athletic lower-middle-class white kids from small towns, with 115 IQs and nose-rings, who like to sit in diners late at night, smoking cigarettes and talking about poetry, tattoos, and Tom Waits.

Kerouac is a competent writer, not a good one. (Tom Wolfe--there's a good writer.) He displays no real creative well in this book...he simply recounts his various (rather boring, often drunken) interactions with his coterie of artsy-fartsy pals, and their frequent road-trips.

The adventures are lackluster--Kerouac goes to "Frisco," and goes to Denver...then goes back to "Frisco"...then goes back to Denver--and the friends are, for the most part, pretentious, uninteresting, drug-addled hipster douchebags.

The fact that this middling book is listed on the MLA 100 is a travesty...were there any justice in the world, its slot (#55) would be occupied by The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.

Jack is a master of prose and plot.......2007-09-26

There are few authors in the twentieth century had the talent for prose that Jack Kerouac did. His ability to use the perfect word is the perfect situation is unparalled, all while using spontaneous prose. Every word in this book is perfect, and it lends support to Kerouac's love for long, marathon writing sessions in which he did not stop to edit or revise. He was truly a master.

Meanwhile, the plot itself is engrossing. You will become absorbed by the story of Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty to the point of obsession, and after finishing the novel, you will be in awe of Kerouac's brilliance.

Every human being needs to read this book. It will help with perspective on life and act as a brilliant metaphor for the journey.

Disappointed--Did I Miss Something???.......2007-09-09

I must admit, I'm one of those people that trust others' reviews of movies, books, etc. But when I hear the word "classic" or "defining", I'm beginning to be very skeptical.

Case in point: JD Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye". Labeled a classic and "must-read", I bought it very late in my reading career. I HATED it. I thought it was a dumb story, written in a dumb way (the rambling of a madman!), with an ending that I had figured out only a third of the way into the book.

I was drawn to "On the Road" by a news magazine's review. "The 50th Anniversary of a classic that defined a generation..." blah blah blah.

Sorry, I didn't get it. I must have missed something. I give it two stars only because it has been able to make it this far!

Not much in it, sadly...........2007-09-06

I am on the last chapter of this "classic" American book, and sadly, I have to say its been a disappointment for me...

Kerouac's style of writing is OK, but comes across to me as sort of copycat Hemingway. And I like Hemingway as a short story writer, but his way of writing is like a long 'dialogue'. It's tedious in a novel like this - its like someone talking to you forever, telling you stuff, but without any reference points you can identify with. Or something like that - I dunno...

I'm no literary critic, but I am an avid reader. Been meaning to tackle On The Road for years, with the full expectation that I'd enjoy it, based on all I'd heard... Now that I've read it, regretably I must say I feel let down.
Maybe my expectations were tainted by the rave literary critiques I've seen over the years. One of the most notable points was always how this was a rebellion against the conformity of 1950s society, the antecedent of the Hippie movement, etc, etc. True, it was published in 1957 (I think), but the work was actually written in something like 1947, which means Kerouac was identifying with a time even earlier than that...so I don't see how this book can have much to do with the 50s or some kind of conservative-society-rebellion. It seems to me to be just a pointless ramble.

Kerouac himself is a bit of an enigma - he died an alcoholic at at 47, after at least one failed marriage and a nomadic adulthood spent relying on his parents. And the "Beat Generation" for which he was the poster child didn't last long.

Somehow, this book just isn't a hit for me. I think too many people have read way too much into it; or maybe that era just had such a dearth of originality that On The Road - and Kerouac himself - became a hit by default years later. His work was never considered worth much during his life.

By all means, buy it if you're interested. But don't be surprised if you, too, wonder what all the fuss was about....

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