The Dharma Bums

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One of the best and most popular of Kerouac's autobiographical novels, The Dharma Bums is based on experiences the writer had during the mid-1950s while living in California, after he'd become interested in Buddhism's spiritual mode of understanding. One of the book's main characters, Japhy Ryder, is based on the real poet Gary Snyder, who was a close friend and whose interest in Buddhism influenced Kerouac. This book is a must-read for any serious Kerouac fan.

Book Description

Two ebullient young men are engaged in a passionate search for dharma, or truth. Their major adventure is the pursuit of the Zen way, which takes them climbing into the high Sierras to seek the lesson of solitude, a lesson that has a hard time surviving their forays into the pagan groves of San Francisco's Bohemia with its marathon wine-drinking bouts, poetry jam sessions, experiments in "yabyum," and similar nonascetic pastimes.

This autobiographical novel appeared just a year after the author's explosive On the Road put the Beat generation on the literary map and Kerouac on the best-seller lists. The same expansiveness, humor, and contagious zest for life that sparked the earlier novel ignites this one.

Customer Reviews:

Traveling, Hiking, Buddhism.......2007-09-01

This book is perfect for anyone who enjoys traveling, hiking or the idea of freeing themselves from a 9 to 5. It's even better for those who feel all of these things simultaneously. Kerouac writes with a terse honesty and gives the reader so many opportunities to apply meaning to our own lives. He helps us to question our own role not in society, but in the search for ourselves.

This book is a little less dark than most of his other books, and it contains some of his best ideas. The protagonist uses another character, Japhy, to explore ideas of Buddhism (Japhy's zen versus his own version). This is never done in an academic way, but rather in the spirit of the book itself: a free, wandering exploration which does not seek overall resolution.

Kerouac also has a gift for self-degredation. He puts his own character and ideas down in subtle ways and moves on without worry for how it looks. Kerouac seems to write as he lives: without too much worry and always with a song in his heart. At one point Japhy becomes concerned about the protagonist (obviously a Kerouac alter-ego) because he is drinking so much. The pathos here is magnified when we know the biography of Kerouac's life.

This is a must read for people who live in the Northwest. His description of their mountain-climbing is excellent. I will let you find the good quotes on your own.

Something every 20 year old can relate to, at least.......2007-08-29

One of the most often used metaphors for inner growth is the travel journal and I'm sure Kerouac would have enjoyed Gurdjieff's somewhat autobiograhical travel novel "Meetings with Remarkable Men." Has this generation (2007) not yet found it's Dharma Bums? Maybe the line between literature and music is blurring (thanks to Dylan, Bob that is). Where is the excitement of adventure that leaps off the pages of these books stirring an energy to do something now, to seek, to find, to discover!!

I would have every 14-20 year-old in America read Dharma Bums (and Electric Kool Aid Acid Test)... it's up to YOU to put some adventure in YOUR LIFE... IT'S YOUR LIFE!

Jack Kerouac and Gary Snyder.......2007-08-18

Following the success of "On the Road", Kerouac's publishers initially rejected his manuscripts such as "The Subterraneans" and "Tristessa." But his publisher asked him to write an accessible, popular novel continuing with the themes of "On the Road." Kerouac responded with "The Dharma Bums" which was published late in 1958. "The Dharma Bums" is more conventionally written that most of Kerouac's other books, with short, generally clear sentences and a story line that is optimistic on the whole. The book was critiqued by Allen Ginsberg and others close to Kerouac as a "travelogue" and as over-sentimentalized. But with the exception of "On the Road", "The Dharma Bums" remains Kerouac's most widely read work. I had the opportunity to reread "The Dharma Bums" and came away from the book deeply moved.

As are all of Kerouac's novels, "The Dharma Bums" is autobiographical. It is based upon Kerouac's life between 1956--1957 -- before "On the Road" appeared and made Kerouac famous. The book focuses upon the relationship between Kerouac, who in the book is called Ray Smith and his friend, the poet Gary Snyder, called Japhy Ryder, ten years Kerouac's junior. Kerouac died in 1969, while Snyder is still alive and a highly regarded poet. Allen Ginsberg (Alvah Goldbrook) and Neal Cassady (Cody Pomeray), among others, also are characters in the book. Most of the book is set in San Francisco and its environs, but there are scenes of Kerouac's restless and extensive travelling by hitchiking, walking, jumping freight trains, and taking buses, as he visits Mexico, and his mother's home in Rocky Mount, North Carolina during the course of the book.

The strenght of "The Dharma Bums" lies in its scenes of spiritual seriousness and meditation. During the period described in the book, Kerouac had become greatly interested in Buddhism. He describes himself as a "bhikku" -- a Buddhist monk -- and had been celibate for a year when the book begins. I have been studying Buddhism myself for many years, and it is easy to underestimate Kerouac's understanding of Buddhism. As with many authors, he was wiser in his writing that he was in his life. There is a sense of the sadness and changeable character of existence and of the value of compassion for all beings that comes through eloquently in "The Dharma Bums." Smith and Ryder have many discussions about Buddhism -- at various levels of seriousness -- during the course of the novel. Ryder tends to use Buddhism to be critical of and alienated from American society and its excessive materialism and devotion to frivolity such as television. Smith has the broader vision and sees compassion and understanding as a necessary part of the lives of everyone. Smith tends to be more meditative and quiet in his Buddhist practice -- he spends a great deal of time in the book sitting and "doing nothing" while Ryder is generally active and on the go, hiking, chopping wood, studying, or womanizing. At the end of the book, he leaves for an extended trip to Japan. (He and Kerouac would never see each other again.)

"The Dharma Bums" offers a picture of a portion of American Buddhism during the 1950s. It also offers a portrayal of what has been called the "rucksack revolution" as Smith and Ryder take to the outdoors, and, in a lengthy and famous section of the book, climb the "Matterhorn" in California's Sierra Mountains. In the final chapters of the book, Kerouac spends eight isolated weeks on Desolation Peak in the Cascades as a fire watchman. He comes back yearning for human company.

Sexuality plays an important role in the book, against the backdrop of what is described as the repressed 1950's, as young girls are drawn to Ryder and he willingly shares them with an initially reluctant Smith. The book includes scenes of wild parties tinged, for Smith, with sadness, in which people of both sexes dance naked, get physically involved, and drink heavily. Near the end of the book, Ryder offers Smith a prophetic warning the alcoholism which would shortly thereafter ruin Kerouac's life.

"The Dharma Bums" is a fundamentally American book and it is full of love for the places of America, for the opportunity it offers for spiritual exploration, and for its people. Kerouac's compassion was hard earned. In his introduction to a later book, "The Lonesome Traveller" he
aptly described his books as involving the "preachment of universal kindness, which hysterial critics have failed to notice beneath frenetic activity of my true-story novels about the 'beat' generation. -- Am actually not 'beat' but strange solitary crazy Catholic mystic." I found a feeling of spirituality, of love of life in the face of vicissitudes, and of America in "The Dharma Bums." The work was indeed a popularization. But Kerouac's vision may ultimately have been broad.

Robin Friedman

The Sad, Beautiful, Joyful World of Jack Kerouac.......2007-07-20

Jack Kerouac was intensely alive and his fiery love of life is perhaps best captured in this wonderful book. One of the treasures of American literature, this warm and happy novel is filled with the joy and sadness that Kerouac saw in the world.

A novel of this type has the unique ability to capture the living heart of a person, putting it down on the page for us all to discover. Fortunately Kerouac was an unusually kind and warm hearted man, and his strange foolhardy goodness illuminates the pages of this book like a warm glowing candle flame.

The main character of the novel is Kerouac himself, but the hero is based on the character of the poet Gary Snyder. One of the wisest of the beats, Snyder has shown us all how to live through his series of fine books. To me, Snyder is a more worthy hero than Neal Cassidy, the character whom Kerouac praises in his most famous book, On the Road.

It is not entirely clear why Kerouac chose to fictionalize the characters in his book, calling his hero Japhy Ryder rather than Gary Snyder. One of the most touching moments of the book comes when Kerouac, describing the time when came back to the west coast after visiting his mother, accidentally slips out of character and says that it is "Gary" who greeted him in the little shack in Marin County.

In this book, and in later years, Snyder would have one complaint about Kerouac: he drank too much. This book perfectly captures Kerouac's wonderful spirit, putting it down on the page where it will not be forgotten for many, many years. But there is also a kind eulogistic sadness that hovers over this book. It is hard to understand how such a beautiful spirit would be so quickly snuffed out by an indulgence in alcohol.

A huge amount of ink has been spilled denigrating the beats in general, Kerouac whenever possible, and this book in particular. It is extremely ironic to read it now, all these years later, and find it is still so vividly alive, while Kerouac's critics and the books they praised are now usually either hopelessly outdated or entirely forgotten. It is true that Kerouac can at times write like an angel, and can steadily write with intense vividness, and occasionally write complete nonsense. But of course Kerouac knew when he was being silly. He was clearly and perhaps admirably lost in the materialism of 1950's America, but he was no fool.
Yet it is not Kerouac's prose that matters, but his amazing, intensely alive spirit. He was rapturously in love with the world and the people in it. Like Melville and Whitman, he had perfect pitch when it came to defining the casual, irreverent style that embodies the best in the American spirit. He is a modern day Ishmael, wandering the mountains of the Pacific Northwest, a refugee from the compulsive materialism of the American Ahabs who crave power so they can wreak their twisted and doomed revenge on their imagined enemies.

At the heart of the book lies a meditation on Mahayana Buddhism and the emptiness of this world. Kerouac, who was full of words, sings the praises of the soundless void. And in that emptiness, he finds the compassion which forms the wellsprings of life. That compassion, and Kerouac's intense ode to the joy of living, are found on every page of this sad, beautiful book.

Rambling and jangly.......2007-03-02

In "The Dharma Bums", Kerouac has written another great book about the search for truth and meaning throughout the American countryside. The story is narrated by Ray Smith and is effectively Kerouac telling his own story. Smith and his friend Japhy are wanderers (or bums) in search of the True Meaning or Dharma. The trip covers one year of travels in the life of Smith. His frantic narrative style seems to be fueled by his frequent poorboys of cheap red wine as well as his sheer excitement to be in pursuit of the truth. The story starts in Berkeley, California and visits the Californian desert, Mexico, North Carolina, Seattle and finally ends at Desolation peak in the North Cascades of Washington state. All of these places are reached by hopping on trains, hitchhiking or shelling out a few cents for a bus ride. Interspersed within the descriptions of travel and characters are Zen musings such as "It's all different appearances of the same thing" as well as meditation on different ideals and places. Kerouac never lets the story slow down and regardless of how accurate the Buddhist ideals are, the rambling, jangly story is quite a ride.

The Dharma Bums (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)

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In search of the eternal state of being
The Dharma Bums
Caringosity killed the Kerouac cat

The Dharma Bums (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
Jack Kerouac
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0143039601

Book Description

The Dharma Bums was published one year after On the Road made Jack Kerouac a celebrity and a spokesperson for the Beat Generation. Sparked by his contagious zest for life, the novel relates the adventures of an ebullient group of Beatnik seekers in a freewheeling exploration of Buddhism and the search for Truth.

Customer Reviews:

In search of the eternal state of being.......2007-08-24

As Kerouac notes in the introductory chapter, he met Gary Snyder, a.k.a. Japhy Ryder in 1955, just before Snyder went off to Japan to immerse himself in Zen Buddhism. What follows is a free-wheeling account of their time together in perhaps Kerouac's most appealling and certainly most postive book. Dharma Bums is a celebration of American Buddhism, which was budding in San Francisco at the time, with a number of Beat poets reading their haikus and free-verse poems at the Six Gallery in San Francisco. Once again, Kerouac revels in changing names, but among the many prominent faces presented in this autobiographical novel are Allen Ginsberg, Kenneth Rexroth and Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Snyder was the rising star, a Buddhist scholar and translator of books of Japanese and Chinese poetry while studying at Berkley. Snyder, like Kerouac, had working class roots and the two hit it off from the start, exulting in each other's state of being.

Kerouac devotes Dharma Bums to Snyder in the same way he did On the Road to Neal Cassady. It was one of Kerouac's more happy times, as he was heavy into Buddhism, and sought out Snyder as a soulmate and mentor. Kerouac sets the stage wonderfully, coming across a hobo reading from St. Theresa on a train bound for LA, coming back from Mexico. He then hops the "Zipper" up to San Francisco, which whirled along at 80 miles an hour on the California coastline. Kerouac hangs out at Ginsberg's cabin in the Berkley hills, but it is Snyder's spartan cabin that draws his attention. Snyder had already chosen to live the life of an aesthete, giving up most of his worldly possessions, except for his famous rucksack and orange crates of books, mostly of poetry. Kerouac captures some wonderful moments as they all gathered around drinking wine and engaging in yab yum with a girl who went by the name of Princess.

The heart of the story revolves around Jack's and Gary's hike to the Matterhorn in the Sierra Nevada, in which the two form a strong bond that propells Kerouac on other adventures, including a summer at Desolation Peak in the northern Cascades that would become the subject of his next book, Desolation Angels. Kerouac's writing shines in this book, as he is able to maintain such an ecstatic high throughout the narrative, almost seeming to touch the sky. Of course, having such a positive person like Gary Snyder to wrap the book around gave Kerouac the impelling force he needed, as on his own Kerouac often sank into melancholy and despair, which characterized his later years. One marvels at the free and easy nature of this pair as they search out their respective enlightenment, drawing on nature and their sense of the eternal cosmos.

One doesn't have to be well versed in Buddhism to appreciate this book, although allusions and references are many and may confuse some readers. Just let yourself go and enjoy the free flow of the narrative, which is Kerouac at his best.

The Dharma Bums.......2007-08-18

Caringosity killed the Kerouac cat.......2007-02-15

Jack Kerouac is one of those artists, musicians, or writers who I get really into for a while, then don't occupy my time with their works, but always come back to them at some point. I read On the Road around 6-7 years ago and afterward quickly read Big Sur and Visions of Girard. Over the past few years though, I thought maybe I had grown out of him. So when my Dad recently gave me a City Lights gift certificate for Christmas, I made a mental note that I'd like to see if I still liked Jack Kerouac or not. I found a neat copy of The Dharma Bums that I had never seen before, so I grabbed it.

Dharma Bums is my favorite Kerouac book so far. As with On the Road, I found his writing to be very evocative; scenery, places, but especially the people Jack comes across in his adventures really come to life. As with his other works, Kerouac calls refers to himself by another name, and in The Dharma Bums he is known as Ray Snyder. The other protagonist is Zen poet Gary Snyder, or Japhy Ryder as he is known here. Dharma Bums starts off "Ray" and "Japhy" and friends hanging out in the Bay Area, and recounts the now-legendary night Allen Ginsburg first recited "Howl" during the heyday of the "San Francisco Renaissance." He also briefly goes over an odd sort of orgy at Japhy's Berkeley house, where all Ray felt comfortable doing was licking some girl's elbows and arms. I have to admit I had just come home from a happy hour when I read the first 30 pages, so that part is kind of fuzzy in my memory.

Following this, the book recalls their trip up the Matterhorn, a large mountain in California's Sierra Nevada mountain range. This was the highlight of the book for me. I felt like I was right there with Ray, Japhy, and their friend Morley who forgot to bring a sleeping bag for the freezing trek, but insisted on bringing an air mattress for him to sleep on. One thing about Kerouac's book is that you can really tell he loves the company of his friends and people he meets on the road. I can't ever recall reading a bad thing about anyone in any of his books. I think a large part of the reason I like reading his books so much is that I appreciate his sincere joy he finds from people and nature. Others might call it naïveté, but bullocks to them.

Following the Matterhorn expedition, Ray leaves to visit his Mom in North Carolina. He hops trains, takes the bus, and hitchhikes across the country. There's the guy from Ohio he meets near the Mexican border, and the fun they have when they make an excursion across the border. In North Carolina one gets the sense that Ray isn't appreciated by his family that much. He tries to explain Buddhism and they laugh him off. I couldn't help but feel bad for him. His mom seems nice, but she is never really developed that well.
Every day he went into the woods to meditate and cavort with the animals. I think that's probably what I would be doing too.

After his return to CA, he is about to take a summer job as a fire lookout in Washington State's Desolation Peak, on Japhy's recommendation. Likewise, Japhy is about to head to Japan to live at a Buddhist monastery. Being Ray and Japhy however, you know there has to be some serious partying before they leave. They are staying in Corte Madera, and there are wild parties every night, usually involving copious amounts of alcohol and people dancing naked. Japhy and Ray sneak out a few days before Japhy is scheduled to leave, and go on a final trek through Marin County wilderness. Japhy leaves and everyone is sad.

The final part of TDB is Ray making his way up to Washington. The strangers he meets are usually nice, with the exception of the Oregon cowboy who purposely runs over Ray's hat on the road. He briefly covers his time as a fire lookout, but I'm sure Desolation Angels goes into much more detail. That will be the next Kerouac book I read. There are a lot of Buddhist themes, prayers, and sayings throughout the book (hence the title.) While that might turn some readers off, I enjoyed it. Buddhism is something that has interested me for quite some time. It's sad that Jack didn't find what he was looking for. The bottle turned out to be his salvation - and demise.

Jack Kerouac: Road Novels 1957-1960: On the Road / The Dharma Bums / The Subterraneans / Tristessa / Lonesome Traveler / Journal Selections (Library of America)

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Jack Kerouac Recognized
THE LIBRARY OF AMERICA GOES SLUMMING
On the Road Again
Jack Kerouac in the Library of America

Jack Kerouac: Road Novels 1957-1960: On the Road / The Dharma Bums / The Subterraneans / Tristessa / Lonesome Traveler / Journal Selections (Library of America)
Jack Kerouac
Manufacturer: Library of America
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 1598530127
Release Date: 2007-09-06

Book Description

The raucous, exuberant, often wildly funny account of a journey through America and Mexico, Jack Kerouac's On the Road instantly defined a generation upon its publication in 1957: it was, in the words of a New York Times reviewer, "the clearest and most important utterance yet made by the generation Kerouac himself named years ago as 'beat.'" Written in the mode of ecstatic improvisation that Allen Ginsberg described as "spontaneous bop prosody," Kerouac's novel remains electrifying in its thirst for experience and its defiant rebuke of American conformity.

In his portrayal of the fervent relationship between the writer Sal Paradise and his outrageous, exasperating, and inimitable friend Dean Moriarty, Kerouac created one of the great friendships in American literature; and his rendering of the cities and highways and wildernesses that his characters restlessly explore are a hallucinatory travelogue of a nation he both mourns and celebrates. Now, to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Kerouac's landmark novel, The Library of America collects On the Road together with four other autobiographical "road books" published in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

The Dharma Bums (1958), at once an exploration of Buddhist spirituality and an account of the Bay Area poetry scene, is notable for its thinly veiled portraits of Kerouac's acquaintances, including Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, and Kenneth Rexroth. The Subterraneans (1958) recounts a love affair set amid the bars and bohemian haunts of San Francisco. Tristessa (1960) is a melancholy novella describing a relationship with a prostitute in Mexico City. Lonesome Traveler (1960) collects travel essays that evoke journeys in Mexico and Europe, and concludes with an elegiac lament for the lost world of the American hobo. Also included in Road Novels are selections from Kerouac's journal, which provide a fascinating perspective on his early impressions of material eventually incorporated into On the Road.

Customer Reviews:

Jack Kerouac Recognized.......2007-09-08

The September 5, 2007 fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Jack Kerouac's On The Road is commemorated by the release of three major volumes: A designated 50th Anniversary edition (Viking, $24.95); On The Road: The Original Scroll, the long-awaited controversial release of the uncensored 120-foot alleged "teletype roll" on which Kerouac blasted out his masterwork in just three weeks, six years before its publication (Viking, $26.95); and the handsome Library of America edition ($35.00), Jack Kerouac: Road Novels 1957-1960, edited with notes by neo-historian Douglas Brinkley, featuring Road and five other of his best known novels with selections from his journals.
Whether this literary blitz will land a grand revival of Kerouac's work by old and new generations is yet unseen. But it secures his reputation as a major American writer because his voice resonates with great poignant prose of Walt Whitman, Mark Twain, and John Steinbeck, celebrating wonders and adventures of youthful travels on the open road.
On The Road helped kick off the 1950s literary "Beat Generation", including works of William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg. It recounts early adventures of Kerouac ("Sal Paradise"), sidekick Neal Cassady ("Dean Moriarty"), Burroughs ("Old Bull Lee"), Ginsberg ("Carlo Marx") and others as they traveled the country in stolen and transport service cars, and partied with sex and drugs while digging be-bop jazz and celebrating the sights and sounds of America. One 1949 trip was to Burroughs' New Orleans house on Wagner Street in Algiers, now renovated and commemorated by an historical marker on its grounds with a quotation from On The Road. Kerouac wrote of crossing the Mississippi River on the Algiers ferry.
"Now we must all get out and dig the river and the people and smell the world," said Dean.... On rails we leaned and looked down at the great brown father of waters rolling down from mid-America like the torrent of broken souls - bearing Montana logs and Dakota muds and Iowa vales and things that had had drowned in Three Forks, where the secret began in ice. Smoky New Orleans receded on one side; old sleepy Algiers with its warped woodsides bumped us on the other." The following text describes the hunt to Burroughs's house in Old Algiers (now a national landmark) and Burrough's wife Joan, gaunt, badly addicted to amphetamines.
Millions of readers and generations of authors have been influenced by the On The Road, typically discovered by readers in their adolescence. Almost everyone who has read the book remembers when and where they first encountered it, the way one indelibly recalls the loss of virginity.
"Original Scroll" examiners including Howard Cunnell say portions of it have a scored line down one side, suggesting it was hand-ruled and cut to fit the platen of Kerouac's typewriter, indicating it was not teletype paper. However, Cunnell makes some errors, not the least of which is that the Burroughs house in Algiers was located next to a bayou. In fact it is about four blocks from the river and many miles from the nearest bayou.
The dust jacket photo of Scroll shows Kerouac holding long, unfurled footage of a large roll of paper not taped together. The book speculates that Kerouac used this particular roll for his second novel, The Dharma Bums.
The Road scroll now is yellowed with age the way foolscap or newsprint-type teletype paper degrades quickly due to acid content. This continuing literary mystery mythologized by more than 50 years of the "teletype manuscript" story deserves proper forensic examination.
Brinkley's editing of Jack Kerouac: The Road Novels 1957-1960 for The Library of America is part of his early and continuing admiration for the author's work, prefaced by his first book "The Majic Bus", in which he repeatedly misspells Ken Kesey's vehicle "Further". The handsome cloth-bound volume, printed on fine acid-free paper with LOA's traditional sewn-in bookmark strip, presents the novels On The Road, The Dharma Bums, The Subterraneans, Tristessa, Lonesome Traveler, and selected journal entries. Dharma Bums, like most of his novels, was interconnected and part of what Kerouac called "The Duluoz Legend". Bums recounts his travels to California and hikes and camping there with his friend fellow beat poet Gary Snyder, and his introduction to Buddhism, which he intertwined with his deep Catholic spirituality. Subterraneans concerns his relationship with a black girlfriend and is not really a "road" novel. Desolation Angels is and would have been more appropriate for this volume. The tragic Tristessa delves deeper into his travels in Mexico as described in Road and focuses on his inability to keep as his lover a prostitute addicted to morphine. Lonesome Traveler has been described more as a travel memoir than a novel, but features some of his most poetic prose, especially a late draft of "October in the Railroad Earth".
The Library of America edition is a beautiful book and well worth buying even if you possess and have read your old dog-eared paperbacks of the books it includes. Brinkley's appendage notes sheds important light on the Beat saga and makes a strong case Kerouac was not an insignificant writer passing through the 1950s and 1960s, but one to be rediscovered and enjoyed by succeeding generations for all time.

THE LIBRARY OF AMERICA GOES SLUMMING.......2007-09-07

Everyone thinks they have good taste. But we all know this can't be true. If you like Kerouac, you don't have good taste -- at least not in literature. It's really that simple.

Truman Capote, who knew a thing or two about writing, famously observed of Kerouac's "On the Road" -- "It isn't writing at all, it's typing."

That about sums it up. It is beyond me how anyone can think this is good writing:

"But then they danced down the streets like dingledodies, and I shambled after as I've been doing all my life after people who interest me, because the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes 'Awww!' "

Seriously, Kerouac writes at about an 8th-grade level, maybe lower. It's all facile surface, no depth. Kerouac cannot be considered an "artist" in any sense of the word.

The so-called "Beat Generation" -- Kerouac, Ginsberg, Burroughs -- were nothing but con-men, impostors, poseurs, and talentless hacks. They fooled their foolish fans and laughed all the way to the bank.

LOA should be embarrased to publish this volume in a library of America's "best and most significant writing." Perhaps they had no choice: LOA is now distributed by Viking Penguin, and Viking Penguin publishes Kerouac's works, so maybe Viking Penguin strong-armed LOA into publishing this volume. But if LOA willingly published this volume, the managing editor ought to be replaced. In theory, LOA is a non-profit publisher, but volumes like this smack of a cash-grab. I wonder what is going on at LOA offices in New York ... Are they compelled to publish volumes like this to help fund more worthwhile but (inevitably) less popular volumes? Or are they faced with organizational bloat, and they're having trouble covering their costs, including their own salaries? Or is LOA like any other organization, where longevity leads to "mission creep" as they lose sight of their original, core mission?

This Kerouac LOA volume is a disservice to young readers everywhere, who might think that the LOA imprimatur is a guaranteed mark of excellence. Alas, that is no longer true.

Once upon a time, I intended to collect the entire LOA. No more. I'll stick to the wonderful series of Faulkner, Roth, James, etc. This Kerouac volume is by far the ***nadir*** of the entire series. At least until LOA publishes volumes by Burroughs or Ginsberg -- oh, the horror, the horror.

On the Road Again.......2007-09-06

2007 was in many ways an interesting year. For one it marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of first of Jack Kerouac's so-called road novels, the seminal "On the Road."This book is one of many commemorating that event, but is one the better selections because it contains four of Kerouac's best known road books along with his lesser known "Lonesome Traveler" and relevant selections from the journal that he kept throughout his life.

"On the Road" was an instant best seller for Kerouac, yet is it is a strange book in many ways. Like all of Kerouac's novels it is a slightly fictionalized autobiography. It concern's a period in his life when he became infatuated with Neil Cassidy (Dean Moriarty) and the search for something never fully defined. Much like the recent hit comedy, "Seinfeld", nothing really happens in this novel. Yet it is a fascinating read because it is filled with touching, funny, or bizarre events that are interesting perhaps because they lead nowhere. This set the pattern for the whole road novel series. These novels also reflect and describe the anomie felt by Kerouac till the day of his death. Some maintain that the third novel in this series "The Subterraneans" is the best, but this is debatable. It also is claimed that the so-called `beat generation' was spawned by the first novel of the series. This is nonsense.

"On the Road" actually refers to events that happened ten years before its publication in 1947-48. In the aftermath of WWII most veterans were using GI benefits to build stable and prosperous post war lives for themselves A rather smaller and often younger group whose lives were disrupted by the war in one way or another or who simply had trouble fitting into post war society chose to step back from the general prosperity and consumerism that was characteristic of the 1950's and early 1960's. The members of this group could be mostly found in the cities living modestly, working at subsistence level jobs and searching for answers to unknown questions. Rather like the characters in the road series novels. "On the Road" struck such a responsive chord because it was the first novel to really describe this group and give its members a collective name, the `Beat Generation." It also brought on the"beatniks" as they became known in the late fifties a good deal of unwanted media attention. Rather oddly two French writers, Jean Paul Sarte and Albert Camus were catapulted into fame as providing the underlying philosophy for what was called the beat movement. Both men were no doubt puzzled and amused by this.

Every few years this reviewer rereads these road novels and always finds some new thought. If nothing else Kerouac reminds us that an unreflective life is not worth living.

Jack Kerouac in the Library of America.......2007-09-06

September 5, 2007 marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of Jack Kerouac's (1922 -- 1969) most famous novel, "On the Road". The Library of America has aptly commemorated the event with its newly-released volume of Kerouac's "Road Novels." The works in this collection were published between 1957 -- 1960, although most of them were written considerably earlier. This volume includes four Kerouac novels, a collection of essays called "Lonesome Traveler", and selections from Kerouac's journals. This volume offers the opportunity for readers to revisit and reassess Kerouac and for new readers to get to know his work. Kerouac amply deserves to be included in the Library of America series which is devoted to honoring the best of American literary achievement.

Kerouac, for all his personal failings and his difficulties with alcoholism and substance abuse, had a better understanding of what his work was about than did some of his critics. In his introduction to "Lonesome Traveler", Kerouac wrote: "Always considered writing my duty on earth. Also the preachment of universal kindness, which hysterical critics have failed to notice beneath frenetic activity of my true-story novels about the 'beat' generation. -- Am actually not 'beat' but strange solitary crazy Catholic mystic."

Kerouac's novels are autobiographical in character. His works lack artistic distance, but they more than compensate for this lack with their immediacy and sense of honesty. They describe a complex and torn individual whose life had been riddled with failure but who was driven to succeed as a writer. Part of Kerouac rejected mainstream American conformity and materialism in favor of a bohemian life of spontanaiety, sex, and wild experience. Yet Kerouac's deepest ambition was to be a successful writer and to enjoy a stable quiet life. Kerouac's work sometimes seems to show a spirit of hedonism and sensuality; but he was greatly influenced by Buddhism and wrote extensively about it; and all his work shows a religious and introspective sensibility. I think Kerouac properly described himself as a writer as a "solitary Catholic mystic".

Kerouac developed a style of writing that he described as "spontaneous prose", and it is amply on display in this volume. It features long, stringy sentences and paragraphs with the feel of jazz and of improvisation. Kerouac's "spontaneous prose" is an erratic technique, which works brilliantly at its best but which can sometimes deteriorate into mere wordsmithing. ("That's not writing -- its typing!" as Truman Capote scornfully, and unfairly, said of "The Subterraneans".) Kerouac was a descriptive writer who could spend pages on detailed portrayals of places and people -- as in the scenes of mountain climbing in "The Dharma Bums" and in the description of Tristessa's living quarters in the novel of that name. His writings, particularly "On the Road" and "Lonesome Traveler" show a deep love of the places, landscapes, and character of the United States. Kerouac was the child of immigrants, and maintained a high and self-conscious spirit of patriotism throughout his life.

In rereading the Kerouac in this volume, I found that "On the Road" remains his most impressive work and a book that should keep Kerouac's place in American literature. The book tells the story of Kerouac's friendship with Neal Cassady (Dean Moriarty in the book), a young man who had spent much of his life in poolhalls, reform school, and prison. The book has a restless energy, and a spirit of passion as Kerouac (Sal Paradise in the book) and Moriarty ride back and forth across the United States and Mexico. "On the Road" leaves tantalizingly ambiguous the nature of the characters' wanderings. Are they looking simply for "kicks" and for sex, or does their search have a spiritual dimension as well? Similarly, Kerouac leaves ambiguous his attitude towards Moriarty and his rootless, wild way of life. For all the attraction Moriarty/Cassady held for Kerouac, "On the Road" can be read as a critique of his wildness and as a search for a life that is full and rich, but also settled.

The remaining works in this collection each have their admirers, and they are all worth reading. My favorite is the short novel "Tristessa" which, in difficult, jagged prose tells the story of Kerouac's relationship with a Mexican prostitute and drug addict during two trips to Mexico City. It includes long passages of detailed descriptions of rooms and streets, reflections on Buddhism, religion, and sex, and a sad but ultimately hopeful story. "The Subterraneans" also tells of a failed romance between Kerouac and a young black woman, Mardou. The book is set in San Francisco (the relationship on which it is based took place in New York City) and it features descriptions of bohemian life in San Francisco, and an astonishing passage related by Mardou in which she finds herself wandering naked over the streets of San Francisco.

"The Dharma Bums" differs from the other books in this collection in that Kerouac wrote it on commission from his publisher after the success of "On the Road." It is written in a much more accessible, popular style than either "Tristessa" or "The Subterraneans" and might be the best book after "On the Road" for the reader new to Kerouac. This book tells of the friendship between Kerouac and the poet Gary Snyder, as they climb mountains, discuss Buddhism, wander cross-country, and have wild parties. Some readers who like Kerouac's other books find "The Dharma Bums" rather tame. I find the book highly thoughtful, in its portrayal of Snyder and Kerouac, in its picture of American Buddhism in the 1950s, and in its depiction of California.

"Lonesome Traveler" is the one work in this collection that was new to me. It is a series of eight travel essays, including an essay on "The Vanishing American Hobo", some of which had been published separately. Kerouac writes that "its scope and purpose is simply poetry, or natural description". Many of these essays cover places and events that Kerouac describes in his novels, but they have a force and continuity of their own in their portrayal of romming houses in San Francisco, pierfront dives, and work on the railroad. The best part of this book is "New York Scenes", an unforgettable portait of "beat" places in New York City.

Kerouac's work remains to be discovered, savored and pondered by a new generation of readers. The Library of America deserves high praise for making his works accessible in this wonderful volume.

Robin Friedman

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Reading The Novel Seems Better
On the Road To Enlightenment

Dharma Bums
Helga Schneider , and Jack Kerouac
Manufacturer: Blackstone Audiobooks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: 0786185791

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Customer Reviews:

Reading The Novel Seems Better.......2007-02-06

Can't say that this really grabs me like On The Road did. I feel less like in on the action and comings and goings of the people mentioned in the novel. Admittedly this may have to do with the fact that I actually read On The Road before I purchased the audio book and I only read part of The Dharma Bums, before getting the audio book. The person who narrates the audio book seems bored and listless.

On the Road To Enlightenment.......2005-08-24

Less plot, more pot than On the Road. Where Kerouac's most famous novel was all about reckless travel, music, girls, and rebellion, Dharma Bums is more introspective. Lots of meditation, soul searching and existential ruminations about life, truth, and nature. My only regret is that I didn't choose the book format, as it was hard to keep up with all the philosophical ramblings while listening in the car.

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The Dharma Bums
Jack Kerouac
Manufacturer: Signet
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Binding: Paperback

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On the Road, The Dharma Bums, The Subterraneans (Quality Paperback)

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On the Road, The Dharma Bums, The Subterraneans (Quality Paperback)
Jack Kerouac
Manufacturer: Quality Paperback Book Club
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ASIN: 0965415937

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The Dharma Bums: Library Edition
Jack Kerouac
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ASIN: 0786183888

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The Dharma Bums
Jack Kerouac
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On the road. The Dharma bums. The subterraneans

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On the road. The Dharma bums. The subterraneans
Jack Kerouac
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Binding: Unknown Binding

Dharma Bum Sylvain Bouthillette: Oeuvres Choisies 1990-2006

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Dharma Bum Sylvain Bouthillette: Oeuvres Choisies 1990-2006
Bernard Lamarche
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