On The Road by Jack Kerouac is one of Modern Library’s Top 100 Novels, it is also on The 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list and it is ranked forty second on The Greatest Books of All Time site, it was called ‘A quintessential novel of America & the Beat Generation’, I have read it for the first time about twelve years ago, I think, and taken it for a second time over the past few days, and I have a mixed verdict, influenced by what (the MAGA side of) America has become, other reviews and notes on films are available at https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedbac

 

On The Road by Jack Kerouac is one of Modern Library’s Top 100 Novels, it is also on The 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list and it is ranked forty second on The Greatest Books of All Time site, it was called ‘A quintessential novel of America & the Beat Generation’, I have read it for the first time about twelve years ago, I think, and taken it for a second time over the past few days, and I have a mixed verdict, influenced by what (the MAGA side of) America has become, other reviews and notes on films are available at  https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html

 

8 out of 10

 

I could see that On The Road is a good book, if not the ‘inspirational work of lasting importance, a classic novel of freedom & longing’ for me, it does not mean a thing that I am not exhilarated, it just proves to me again the futility of reading these notes, writing them may make some sense, I was explain to a mate from the sauna

 

He looked me up on the net and found the blog, I told him he should not bother with it, for it is where I am pouring some things out – byu the way, move on, and do not ‘flag, or report me’, because I do not stick to The Road, what I had to say it up there, I am not hugely impressed by the book – from my heart and that is ok

Instead of talking too much, which I do at the club, I just put some frustrations, fears, aspirations in a corner of the net where nobody is bothered: the blog has days with 20 clicks, admittedly, there have been some with more than one thousand, but they come and go instantly, no harm done, I have to ‘communicate’

 

Even if nobody gets to ‘hear this’, still, there is the feeling that I have shared the anxiety, writing is a method of therapy, we feel soothed to some extent, we severe ties when we put this on paper, or screen, and then they say that we get some sort of understanding, if not always, we see events from a different perspective

People use a different part of the brain when they write…and then there is If https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/01/if-by-rudyard-kipling-one-of-most.html by Rudyard Kipling ‘If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you’ – a comedian says you should…

 

have your head examined if that happens, now a few words about On The Road: there have been passages that shock, such as the time in Mexico, with the under-age girls, the one from Venezuela, the mirthful take, it looked as if Mexicans are angels, and that is contrary to the gruesome mass murders we hear about in our time

evidently, there is a feeling that this is also the opposite of the America we have on tv now, what with the Orange Ogre doing a disgusting, terrible thing every day – I left it like this, but I immediately saw it is not just one per day, they have that ‘strategist’, Bannon, who said they are going to ‘flood the zone with shit’

 

indeed, yesterday, the leader of the (once) free world posted a video in which Barack Obama and his wife are shown as monkeys…to end with, I was also influenced by Kinglsey Amis and his rejection of On The Road and Kerouac, they took part together at a discussion: ‘There may be a beat generation, but I doubt it.” That is what he said there

 

Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – I am on Goodreads as Realini Ionescu, at least for the moment, if I keep on expressing my views on Orange Woland aka TACO, it may be a short-lived presence

Also, maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the benefits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

 There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works

 

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’