YMMV / Jack Kerouac

• Creator Backlash: Later in life, Kerouac came to resent the fact that the popularity of On The Road overshadowed his later novels, made worse by the fact that he believed that it wasn't even that good in retrospect.
• Critical Dissonance: The Vanity of Duloz was Kerouac's most critically panned novel, and though it's virtually unknown compared to his far more popular early works, casual readers tend to prefer its simplicity. Critics also hated On The Road, which is by far his most popular work. The latter was Vindicated by History. The former, while still having its fair share of critics, is nowadays considered one of his better works.
• Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory: Played with; Kerouac famously despised it when people looked for symbolism in his books, but he was equally annoyed when people didn't get the religious themes that permeated most of his works. He was particularly offended by a journalist who remarked that he never wrote about Jesus, saying "You're an insane phony! All I write about is Jesus.''
• Misaimed Fandom: How he felt about hippies that embraced his works and the Beat Movement in general. He felt that they had missed the point of his works, misreading him as an aimless bohemian and reading leftist politics into them.
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: Often cited as one of the main reasons why his later works are substantially less popular. Their bitter, nihilistic tone often interferes with the fact that they are actually a lot easier to read than the more whimsical On The Road and Dharma Bums.

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