On the Road

Rock and Roll artists like Bob Dylan and John Lennon were early Kerouac fans, and the Beat movement paved the way for subsequent youth movements like the hippies of the 1960s and the grunge kids of the 1990s. However, it may be because of this association with youth and rebellion that the novel has never made it into the official literary canon. But unlike other critics who dismiss it, Holton is not looking for answers to today's problems in this 1950s novel.