On The Road CD by Jack Kerouac
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Book Reviews of On The Road CD
Book Review: Jack, Matt, Sal, and Dean
Summary: 5 Stars
I urge you to listen to this superb but flawed classic if only to witness the emotional honesty of the underrated Matt Dillon's passionately versatile performance. The young actor would be inspired by the bravery and intangibility of genuine acting, if only Dillon's voice for Dean Moriarty.
The young novelist should also study this work for the promise and pitfalls inherent with the risk of composing a flow of uncorrected words. Truman Capote, another talent tortured by his alcoholism, was part right and wrong, when he complained 'That's not writing, that's typing.' Kerouac's glorious depictions of the beat lifestyle, how to listen to bebop, the energies of town and country, driving on the highway, and Dean Moriarty's elliptical syntax keep this work suspended in the heavens.
The author needed, however, to temper his stylistic bravery with the humility of relying on a brilliant editor. He cheats the reader and himself by cowering away from his inner life. Sal hides his past, despite disclosing Dean's. He also abandons his talent for describing the indescribable bond between lovers and friends after a first promising encounter with his future wife. Alcoholism can drive one to this despondently hopeful but closed world view, while ironically propelling one to the open road. But it is also usually foreshadowed by a confusing chaotic childhood. It is not enough to say that Kerouac was staying consistent with Sal's character, an observer of others who can't observe himself. A courageous novelist could reveal his secrets in a disarming, unpredictable, and deceptively unselfconscious way.
An editor would have also encouraged Jack Kerouac to scratch out the word "sad" and all its synonyms that stubbornly drip onto every page. Someone needed to convince him to trust the narrative, which bleeds sadness. To paraphrase Martin Buber, his characters have a relationship with and live in sadness; to give it a name kills its holiness.
This novel still rewards the reader enough, even if shortchanged by the end of the story , as the characters are with each other. Dillon, however, gives back more than what you paid. There's a lot to listen and learn On the Road with Jack, Matt, Sal and Dean.
Book Review: Excellent. Dean Moriarty would probably say: Yes, Yes, Yes, this man has got IT!
Summary: 5 Stars
I think most of the reading is excellent, just some short parts are less inspired, and maybe- but this is very personal - only the very first pages are not read in the mood I feel them in my soul. But the more you listen, the more you are caught in the reading and you realize the great work of actor Dillon has made and in a very spontaneous way.
Dillon's voice is full of colours and tones, the reading is rich in changes of speed, subtle shifting in mood. He succeeds in carving the characters from within in such a deep and honest way that they keep on living haunting you also when the reading is over. All the dialogues are performed in an outstanding way.
If English readers disagree, let me add that I am Italian and I had bought On the road long time ago but in English it was difficult for me and I didn't like the Italian translation. Though not English, I had felt the jazz wave of the writing and loved it. I felt a lot went lost in translation as if you cannot read Cesare Pavese in Italian, I guess.
So On the road had remained there on the shelf together with other not-yet-read books that are like friends I keep loving simply because I trust them.
What a surprise then when a lot of years later, while living in a country with a mysterious language, where English appears the only chance to subtitle reality and fiction, I found out that a reading of the whole book was available and the narrator was Matt Dillon, who has the perfect voice to embody On the road.
So thanks to Matt Dillon for driving me till the end of this journey of Kerouac's word in such an intense way, performing this jazz session of Kerouac right with the voice I had always imagined these lines would sound.
I don't know of any movie of On the Road. This is the kind of book that may frighten a director. However, listening to this reading I imagined it would be challenging with a director as Gus Van Sant or maybe Coppola or Scorsese, having Matt Dillon performing Sal or Dean, or even both, the last idea only if an enough visionary director/writer can somehow tell through the movie art how much Dean is part of Sal himself.
Book Review: Go thou and be little beneath my sight ...
Summary: 5 Stars
Just a note this time. I will not try to repeat what others have so clearly stated. This version of the work with Matt Dillon is amazing. I really enjoyed his vocal version of Dean. The reading of the work is clear and precise and studio perfect.
I'm very happy that this has finally been put out unabridged. David Carridine put out a version through Penguin in the mid-eighties on cassette, that was really fantastic as well, but was, unfortunately, abridged. Carridine's Sal Paradise was truer to the vocal spirit of Jack Kerouac, almost imitating him it seemed, which you won't find Dillon trying to repeat. Nevertheless it's entirely absorbing.
Some people have complained about Matt Dillon's "sluggish" reading in places with the material. I disagree with this sentiment vehemently. I believe the emotional honesty which you can hear from Matt Dillon's voice, shows that not only does he know the material, has listened to Kerouac's and Burroughs's past voice recordings but grasps the larger meaning of the words themselves, which is the true point of the book. He intonates like Jack without trying to imitate him ... which would really be a sin.
Well worth the money and the time spent listening.
Thank you, Matt Dillon.
Thank you, Jack Kerouac.
Book Review: Have Keroac, Will Travel
Summary: 5 Stars
A more perfect traveling companion cannot be found than Matt Dillon's reading of the unabridged ON THE ROAD. He captures the passion for movement that energized Keroac and all his learning-to-be-hip friends of the late 1940's. His voices of the main characters were on target. That was crucial to enjoying an audio book where dialogue, as much as narration, drives the story.
The pace of this reading fits beautifully with a trip across town, across the county, across the country. It makes riding in an auto the adventure it once was.
Book Review: Great performance, great novel
Summary: 5 Stars
Matt Dillon was an excellent choice for this project. I never tire of this book and I have to say Matt reads this as flawlessly as if he were telling his own story from memory.
His performance is subtle as well as steller. Kerouac's absence from hollywood has made him a sort of conversation pitch, because if you don't know Jack you probably don't read very much.