This is my 2nd attempt to read this. My first was during college, where I crashed out about halfway through, during the part of the book where Sal Paradise is living with Terry and picking cotton. At the time I didn't find much of interest in the book, and I was too focused on other things. Now older, I decided to give it another try. I wasn't blown away, unfortunately a lot of what was unique about the work has been lost since it came out (it's frank depiction of sexuality, drug usage, infidelity, etc).

However I think that there are still thing's of interest in the book. Kerouac captures the manic energy of youth. Paragraphs fly through locations and people with a freewheeling style, creating a kind of free-form narrative as Kerouac as Sal drive through a United States that has long since disappeared. Everything seems important, small cities and towns are described as part of a grand view of the US. People pop in and out the narrative frequently, but everyone and everything has this sense of importance placed on them as being part of the whole of America.

The novel is not just about America as grand object, but also with youth and growing up. One of the many threads that makes up the work follows Kerouac's friend Neal Cassady as Dean Moriarty going from beloved member of the disparate and wide flung friend group to being seen as a user and a childish man unable to actually engage with the people he's with. And while Sal is much more sympathetic and even entranced by Dean, even he eventually has his tipping point.

My main criticism of the book, however, is that I am nowhere near as entertained or entranced by Dean's antics as Kerouac is. His nonsensical and pseudo-intellectual posturing and dialogue just floats past me, and it's a vision of youth and life that I don't really have any connection to. As well, the book starts to drag by the end as even the energetic prose starts to run out of steam. This doesn't even get into the casual misogyny and racism Kerouac throws around, and is at it's worst during the last part when the pair travels to Mexico.

My main takeaway is that I can see why this book was so important to 20th century literature and it has flashes of genius, but it's not a favorite, and I don't think you'll necessarily be missing anything if you decide to put it down.