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The Dharma Bums (Duluoz Legend)

by Jack Kerouac

3.93 · rating details · 19,493 ratings · 1,085 reviews

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 inte...more

Paperback, 244 pages

Published May 27th 1976 by Penguin Books (first published 1958)

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Apr 23, 2011

Paul rated it

Shelves: novels

That's a completely nostalgic four stars of course. Has there been a writer whose reputation has plummeted quite so much between the 70s and now as jolly Jack and his tales of merry misogynism? But like Bob Dylan says

While riding on a train goin’ west
I fell asleep for to take my rest
I dreamed a dream that made me sad
Concerning myself and the first few friends I had

With half-damp eyes I stared to the room
Where my friends and I spent many an afterno...more

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Apr 24, 2009

Nate rated it

Recommends it for: buddhist hobos

Recommended to Nate by: Everyone

Shelves: postwar-re-de-constructions

So I only just started this, but just look:

"And who am I?"
"I dunno, maybe you're Goat."
"Goat?"
"Maybe you're Mudface."
"Who's Mudface?"
"Mudface is the mud in your goatface. What would you say if someone was asked the question 'Does a dog have a Buddha nature?' and said 'Woof!'"

Fortunately Kerouac's Proxytagonist du jour acknowledges this as "silly Zen Buddhism", but even so, ...more

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Apr 06, 2007

Leile Brittan rated it

This was really a pleasant surprise. After making my way through "On the Road" and a few other things by Kerouac, I had come to the conclusion that the dude is a hack, and that the other Beats were really on some way better shit. I just couldn't feel that "rambling" ass style that he writes in, even though I acknowledge that it was a conscious decision of his to write that way.

I get it -- he writes the way he travels, making quick decisions and trying to be spont...moreThis was really a pleasant surprise. After making my way through "On the Road" and a few other things by Kerouac, I had come to the conclusion that the dude is a hack, and that the other Beats were really on some way better shit. I just couldn't feel that "rambling" ass style that he writes in, even though I acknowledge that it was a conscious decision of his to write that way.

I get it -- he writes the way he travels, making quick decisions and trying to be spontaneous and spiritual. But to me it's kind of just a garbage decision stylistically...personally, I like writers to show a little discipline and take heed to the laws of grammar and punctuation. Plus I think he was just drunk half the time. I write a lot of stuff when I'm drunk too -- it doesn't mean I would try and get it published unless I sat down and edited the fuck out of it, with a clear head one day. Drugs and booze can be good for the creative process, but at some point you've got to sit down and get serious, whittle down your ideas to a respectable form.

Which is what I think Kerouac did here. There is some great writing in "Dharma Bums", and even when he rambles, it flows with the ease and beauty of a rolling freight train, or a babbling brook. Finally, you feel like one of Kerouac's characters have gained something useful and spiritual from the life of being a hobo. Ray Smith, the protagonist, embodies the strengths and faults of a lot of guys I know, myself included sometimes. I only wish I could have been around in the days where the happily homeless poets would congregate in San Francisco, and talk about the kind of shit that these guys do. Sadly, the days where stuff like this happens in America are pretty much long gone, I fear.

I think I will take a second look at some more Kerouac after being pretty durn impressed by this. Namely, "Big Sur" is now on the list. After taking in "The Dharma Bums" and the fantastic introduction which was included in the edition I read, I feel a newfound respect for what Jack K did and the legacy he left behind. He was far from perfect, and a lot of the writing and relationships he left behind make this more than evident. But more than anything I think Kerouac was honest (about everything including his own self-demise, which he foreshadows eerily in parts of this novel). If honesty was his main goal as a writer, in that respect he was definitely a success.

One last thing I found cool about "The Dharma Bums" - a lot of American cultural references are derived from this novel. Not only from the hippies and the neo-hippies, but this is a very influential work in terms of modern artistry. The Anticon Records rappers/poets collective (including Dose One, Why?, and others) referenced this book heavily in a lot of their stuff during the late 90's/early 2000's Experimental Hip Hop Rennaissance. Lines like:

"Fresh bus station water...and it all ends up in tears anyway"

were lifted directly from the text, and put onto all these weird hip hop records I've been listening to for the past decade. I had no idea these were quotes from "Dharma Bums", but I guess I shouldn't be too surprised. Life and art tend to have circular qualities, indeed.
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Apr 19, 2007

tony rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: everybody

consistently one of my favorite reads. i've bought this book three times now and i still haven't been able to hold on to it. the kerouac estate will forever be the recipient of my hard earned dough.

i have to say, it's one of my top ten. not for its far-reaching insights, kerouac's intimate style, or it's lively presentation of a man who was the embodiment, precursor, exemplification, and antecedent to all those to follow dubbed 'heads' or less acurately 'hippies,' but for it's d...more

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Dec 06, 2008

Selena rated it

Recommends it for: Philosophers, Poets, Catholics,Nomads

I got my copy in Chicago for a dollar
My friends frienzied onward toward the train
I had the whole thing read by Indiana
and I had been forever changed.

I started, for some time, to weep
about the beauty in a lonely life
stumbling back to his shade tree, Jack found
a magic trap door in his mind.

The nature, she beckons, relententlessly
dewy sweaters on sweet, green leaves
taste like tripping the child right out of me
to d...more

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Feb 15, 2009

Brad rated it

Shelves: classic

So many people I trust and respect love Jack Kerouac. They consistently praise his work to me, recommend books that I should read and even buy me his books, hoping I'll love him like they do, but try as I might I still haven't found what they find in Kerouac's work.

But I do try. Every couple of years I crack out another one of his books that I've started and never finished (which is all but The Dharma Bums and Mexico City Blues), and start reading it again. I rarely get very far.
...more

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Jun 25, 2007

Daniel rated it

So we unpacked our packs and laid things out and smoked and had a good time. Now the mountains were getting that pink tinge, I mean the rocks, they were just solid rock covered with the atoms of dust accumulated there since beginningless time. In fact I was afraid of those jagged monstrosities all around and over our heads.

'They're so silent!' I said.

'Yeah man, you know to me a mountain is a Buddha. Think of the patience, hundreds of thousands of years just sitting there ...moreSo we unpacked our packs and laid things out and smoked and had a good time. Now the mountains were getting that pink tinge, I mean the rocks, they were just solid rock covered with the atoms of dust accumulated there since beginningless time. In fact I was afraid of those jagged monstrosities all around and over our heads.

'They're so silent!' I said.

'Yeah man, you know to me a mountain is a Buddha. Think of the patience, hundreds of thousands of years just sitting there bein perfectly perfectly silent and like praying for all living creatures in that silence and just waiting for us to stop all our frettin and foolin.' Japhy got out the tea, Chinese tea, and sprinkled some in a tin pot, and had the fire going meanwhile, a small one to begin with, the sun was still on us, and stuck a long stick tight down under a few big rocks and made himself something to hang the teapot on and pretty soon the water was boiling and he poured it out steaming into the tin pot and we had cups of tea with our tin cups. I myself'd gotten the water from the stream, which was cold and pure like snow and the crystal-lidded eyes of heaven. Therefore, the tea was by far the most pure and thirstquenching tea I ever drank in all my life, it made you want to drink more and more, it actually quenched your thirst and of course it swam around hot in your belly.

'Now you understand the Oriental passion for tea,' said Japhy. 'Remember that book I told you about the first sip is joy the second is gladness, the third is serenity, the fourth is madness, the fifth is ecstasy.'

'Just about old buddy.'

The rock we were camped against was a marvel. It was thirty feet high and thirty feet at base, a perfect square almost, and twisted trees arched over it u and peeked down on us. From the base it went outward, forming a concave, so if rain came we'd be partially covered. 'How did this immense sonumbitch ever get here?'

'It probably was left here by the retreating glacier. See over there that field of snow?'

'Yeah.'

'That's the glacier what's left of it. Either that or this rock tumbled here from inconceivable prehistoric mountains we can't understand, or maybe it just landed here when the friggin mountain range itself burst out of the ground in the Jurassic upheaval. Ray when you're up here you're not sittin in a Berkeley tea room. This is the beginning and the end of the world right here. Look at all those patient Buddhas lookin at us saying nothing.' (less)

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Aug 07, 2008

Joan rated it

Too much bum, not enough dharma.

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Oct 23, 2010

Ms. Fenn rated it

Shelves: finished-irp-books

Dharma Bums is for the hiker/outdoorsman, the aspiring buddhist sage, and the lover of beautifully woven syntax. Ray thumbs his way across the continental U.S. two, almost three times. In his travels, he meets hobos, family, friends, yabyum partners, Zen Lunatics but mostly he discovers a love for the essence of nature and the power of it's awesomeness. Ray overcomes some personal demons with the help and guidance of Japhy Ryder. Eventually, he decides to take a post as a fire watcher on top of ...more

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Nov 26, 2008

Keleigh rated it

Shelves: schooldaze, truth, yearnings

Kerouac is innocent and rowdy and loco, unjaded and earnest, a real goodfellow. I tried reading On the Road as a high schooler and was unimpressed, I was too serious and uptight. I lacked experience. This time around I get the Zen stuff, yo, I was put off at first by his attempts at telling what is impossible to tell, but he reveals himself, he risks ridicule to show how sincere he feels, and how arrogant too, like when Rosie dies and he thinks if only she had listened to him, if only she knew w...moreKerouac is innocent and rowdy and loco, unjaded and earnest, a real goodfellow. I tried reading On the Road as a high schooler and was unimpressed, I was too serious and uptight. I lacked experience. This time around I get the Zen stuff, yo, I was put off at first by his attempts at telling what is impossible to tell, but he reveals himself, he risks ridicule to show how sincere he feels, and how arrogant too, like when Rosie dies and he thinks if only she had listened to him, if only she knew what he knew. He writes the pure callow self-centeredness of first discovery, not yet humbled, convinced of his singular chosenness, here to show the world how it’s really done, what’s really possible. And the amazing thing is he does, did, he introduced the West to Buddhism in a way that, as far as I know, hadn’t been done before. There’s a wildness that gradually gains harder edges as the story wears on, becomes slightly less ebullient, more tame in the way of impending bitterness, but then not at all bitter, just the slight threatening impending-ness of it, because the world is gonna change and you know it and he may or may not know it, but certainly his world is changing and nothing of course can stay the same, including good old Japhy. And then there is that last section, he writes the "religious" experience of extended solitude in nature with such joy and authenticity. I have wondered for years how to convey the experience of connecting with God, with Source, sans sentimentality. I am not exactly sure how he does it, my hunch is that he succeeds by constantly reconnecting with the physical world, rather than going up into his head in airy transcendence. He puts you in touch with the land and the air and the stars in a way like no other. It’s a natural world and in the natural world people eat and smoke and piss and get agitated for no good reason and madness must be followed by peace and peace by madness. In someone else words, “After the ecstasy, the laundry.” Ray experiences moments of enlightenment, followed by feeding the cat (135). They get sick of parties and sick of each other. And they are also so dearly devoted, it’s a man’s man’s world, and there is such tenderness in these male friendships. Women are good girls or mad girls or hangers-on, but that’s fitting for this period in the narrator’s life, trying as he is to stick to celibacy (with hints of something obviously beneath that, like a deep-seated fear of women, a little boy’s awe and sense of mystery).

You either get it or you don’t, I think, and this time around I got it.
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Nov 20, 2008

Iz rated it

Shelves: travel

So this is what started the "backpack revolution". Great. Except it was less backpacking, more Buddhism preaching. The main character (Ray?) comes across as a patronizing nutcase with his combination of drunken bumhood, Christianity, and Buddhism.

So he is a buddhist - correction: he thinks he is Buddha - and he also thinks he is a "crazy saint". He believes he can perform miracles, namely cure his mother of allergies, but then decides he won't perform miracles an...more

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Mar 10, 2010

Abailart rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

Also, read. A long time ago and I gave it five stars from memory. My stars are based on fondness and not literary judgment. I had an urge to read it again. It's a part of my youth reading, so maybe nostalgia takes me back to one of the key texts of that youth.
I'm nearing the end of it. I am not convinced at all that Kerouac is a great writer in some monolithic sense (which would be imbued with all sorts of dubious moral-aesthetic imperium) but he is very good at what he does well, very hon...moreAlso, read. A long time ago and I gave it five stars from memory. My stars are based on fondness and not literary judgment. I had an urge to read it again. It's a part of my youth reading, so maybe nostalgia takes me back to one of the key texts of that youth.
I'm nearing the end of it. I am not convinced at all that Kerouac is a great writer in some monolithic sense (which would be imbued with all sorts of dubious moral-aesthetic imperium) but he is very good at what he does well, very honest in that the tone never wavers or plays tricks for effect. One particular aspect of honesty that saves his pop buddhism from absurdity is his genuine love of people irrespective, neutral compassion untinged by negative value judgments such as of the bourgeois, the unelightened, the 'square'. Also, some of his insights into Japhy are chillingly accurate such as the great Zen acrobat's fear of entering a run of the mill restaurant where people dress well (in a bourgeois, unelightened, square way). But Japhy, bright and gleaming is, too, the epitome of the American ideal individual: "What hope, what human energy, what American optimism was packed into that neat little frame of his!" The understated, so more potent, hints of dissipations and borderline madnesses (Rosie's death is a crystal that throws all the Dharmic mud into its proper relief) are framed by a narrative of trying earnestly, desperately to outrun the wearisome (because Japhy keeps going on about it) American system of consumption and production and thereby being the more strongly and deeply attached to it. Indeed, as an accurate record of a cultural current in American history of the 50s, and atavistically of the current 'new' age, it is an indictment of an individualism far more intense than competitive materialism posits, and of the consumption of various fragments of ersatz hokum pokum that allows its spiritually hedonistic carriers of the Dharma to substitute engagement with history, the struggle for justice, a genuine self development and self-actualised independence - with a commitment to love all creatures, twigs, stars and to talk to ants. My feeling is that Kerouac would not be utterly unsympathetic to this reading. It's largely autobiographical and we should be grateful, to use that word honest again, to have a writer so honest we learn about ourselves a little more, and uncover what our pseudo-innocence would prefer left covered. Hints too, throughought, especially on the road, and when brought feelingly to mind by Ray the suffering of the invisible masses. America, like an individual, has its Yes and No.
There is much fine writing here. The descriptions of landscape are often stupendous. Kerouac's evocations of the mountainous Canadian Pacific borderlands - "this torrent of purity at my feet" (Ch.32) - moves the sensuous to the sensual. The final chapters indeed convey joy in the simple beingness, whether it is magical or 'real', among the mountains.
Whether he were a Calvinist farmer, a disciple of Thoreau and or Whitman (who is mentioned, of course) or Emerson, the whole gamut, that appeal of cleanliness and purity through simplicity and effort, of achieving for the sake of achieving rather than gain (such as the still, to me, excellent account of the ascent of the Mountain) do seem to resonate deep down, at least in the post-romantic western cultures. Possibly transhumanist or inhumanist vision typified by Robinson Jeffers touches Kerouac's imagination: certainly the abstract conceptualising of humans as vain and fragile creatures, like upside-down beetles they are described at one point, suggests such a polarising I've hinted at (and which may be part of our basic pyschic make-up, or a refraction of it).And if this is clumsily put, that which I'm trying to indicate, I'd suggest going to Kerouac who manages it so well, and not in spite of the flaws expressed (leave aside literary flaws) of the passing moments in a life, but precisely because of the flaws.
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Sep 16, 2007

Brian rated it

Recommends it for: Any Beatnik fan

My first introduction to Kerouac was "On the Road" in Dr. Kaylor's Humanities II class at UNI. I found a kindred spirit whose writing style seemed to be my own (see any of my tucked-away journals of those days)...the rambling, stream-of-conscience style that people either got it or they didn't. That was in 1992. I reread it again in 1994. So it has been a while...

Kerouac isn't for everyone. Most everyday readers might find it to be a breath of fresh air but others will be s...more

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Jun 05, 2007

Morgan rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: religion-slash-spiritual

A good read, although I did find it to be a bit pretentious and hypocritical, at least on the part of the main character (whom I can only assume is an extension of the author). While I do appreciate the struggle towards enlightenment, I feel that there are two problems with the book.

Firstly, the main character's attitude towards Christianity is the same attitude he receives from others about his Buddhism, yet he does not see the parallel, and does not see his own closed-minded natur...more

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Sep 14, 2007

Brian Bowen rated it

Recommends it for: ramblers

If you've read "On the Road", then you know what you're getting into with this one. Lots of half ironic wine-steeped philosophy, casual flings with sexually liberated females, and aimless epic adventures fueled by poetry and hip flasks of port. I read it to get a bit of perspective on the whole "On the Road at 50" media frenzy, and all my impressions Kerouac's style of writing still hold in "Dharma Bums".

The plot is loose, but the VOICE is key. As Kerou...more

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Jan 05, 2011

Brian rated it

9/25/04 - 7/10

Dharma Bums is very similar in vibe to On the Road. The narrator is a lot like Sal, and Japhy is 'mad' like Dean. This is a bit more upbeat, spiritual and nature focused. It's all about seeking truth through Zen Buddhism, poetry, nature, drinking and sex - all in great abundance. The buddhist stuff can be a bit much at times, but I appreciate the quest for truth and the focus on living life to the fullest. I liked a lot of the nature passages. The Matterhorn description made me wan...more

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Mar 19, 2009

Troy rated it

My one-phrase rundown: vaguely interesting, but I wouldn’t recommend it.

I should acknowledge the likelihood that I’m just not smart enough for Kerouac. It took me longer than it should have to power through the book, and there were numerous places I almost threw up my hands in exasperation and quit.

Tellingly, the most difficult parts for me were the turgid and pretentious discussions of, well, the nature of everything. Which of, course, is nothingness. Except that nothing ...more

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Oct 03, 2011

James rated it

Shelves: memoir, buddhism

Jack Kerouac said that "On the Road" was just the story of two Catholic boys searching for God. Maybe so, but it is a bastardized homo-erotic version of Catholicism (more so in the original 'scroll' edition). Not content to bastardize Christianity, Kerouac tells this tale of his exploration of Buddhism (semi-autobiographical novel).

I liked this book better than "On the Road." It is less rambling and more crafted. Of course Kerouac is trite and simplistic in his cha...moreJack Kerouac said that "On the Road" was just the story of two Catholic boys searching for God. Maybe so, but it is a bastardized homo-erotic version of Catholicism (more so in the original 'scroll' edition). Not content to bastardize Christianity, Kerouac tells this tale of his exploration of Buddhism (semi-autobiographical novel).

I liked this book better than "On the Road." It is less rambling and more crafted. Of course Kerouac is trite and simplistic in his characterization of Buddhism. He is as misogynist as ever here. But I think this is the better novel and I appreciated somethings about it.

First of all, I think that what stands out to me is Kerouac's descriptions of people. Kerouac's protagonist (based on himself), is accepting and appreciative of most of the people he meets (if they are men, otherwise they tend to be playthings). I enjoyed the dialogue and some of Kerouac's descriptions of his surroundings. There is mountain climbing, hiking, hitchhiking, train rides and lots of conversation. The characters here, perhaps fueled by their spiritual explorations are less self absorbed than Kerouac's descriptions of On the Road (also an autobiographical novel).

So what of the Buddhism? I am absolutely fascinated by America's fascination with Buddhism. This novel kind of typifies the American Buddhist experience. They love how exotic it is, how wise it sounds, and love the longing for transcendence and the connection of all things. And then American Buddhists make Buddhism into what they want it to be (yet I know this is an over generalization). The sense is that whatever may actually be Buddhist is repackaged as Buddhism lite. This is the sort of thing you get here.

But one of the things I appreciated about Kerouac is he seems pretty aware of the contradictions in his 'Buddhism.' His characters preach detachment and enlightenment all the while using too much drugs, drinking too much and using women. This doesn't make their 'spiritual experiences' inauthentic, but it does prove that while these travelling dharma bums may be in some sense pilgrims, they don't make a lot of progress. The fact that Ray's big moment of enlightenment happens while he longs for a Hershey Bar, tells you that this is the American Consumer version of the whole Buddhist experience. (less)

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Sep 20, 2011

Sam Quixote rated it

The book starts off well with Kerouac meeting a young student of Zen Buddhism called Japhy Ryder and the two decide to climb the Matterhorn. I've been out to the Sierras myself and enjoyed the descriptions of the scenery, it reminded me of my time up there, sleeping in the forest, waking up in my sleeping bag covered in snow. It's really beautiful writing, and the story (a rarity for Kerouac, having a story) rushes forwards. There's also a nice buildup with Kerouac hopping freights, sleeping on ...moreThe book starts off well with Kerouac meeting a young student of Zen Buddhism called Japhy Ryder and the two decide to climb the Matterhorn. I've been out to the Sierras myself and enjoyed the descriptions of the scenery, it reminded me of my time up there, sleeping in the forest, waking up in my sleeping bag covered in snow. It's really beautiful writing, and the story (a rarity for Kerouac, having a story) rushes forwards. There's also a nice buildup with Kerouac hopping freights, sleeping on beaches under the stars, etc. It's what makes Kerouac the writer he is. Kerouac, Ryder and Ginsberg have some nice back and forths debating poetry. Ginsberg's cynicism of Buddhism makes for an interesting and funny debate.

After the Matterhorn episode though, around page 80, the story is basically told. Kerouac has no idea how to progress the remaining 100 pages. I guess the point of the book was to talk about Buddhism but I never felt Kerouac was a serious student of it. Buddhism promotes abstinence of sex, drugs, drinking, all of which Kerouac partakes of frequently. He's like a lot of people I know who are into Buddhism - they take the parts they like and pretend they're the real thing. They're not, and neither is Kerouac.

Unfortunately, Kerouac's writing becomes even more meandering as he rambles on with pseudo-profound writing. Here's an actual quote which he thinks is enlightening: "Form is emptiness and emptiness is form and we're here forever in one form or another which is empty". See what I mean? And this goes on for 100 pages!
"On the Road" wasn't as revelatory to me as it was to some of my friends. It was disjointed, a bit annoying, not nearly as clever or interesting as it thought it was and ultimately quite boring. 10 years later, I decide to give him another try with "Dharma Bums" and initially I thought it was going to be great. What happened was that Kerouac's enthusiasm and naivety got in the way of the writing.

It would be too easy to type down passages from the book that shows how shallow the book's attempts at mysticism are or how Kerouac's writing makes him sound like a wide eyed innocent and inexperienced 13 year old from the country setting foot in the city for the first time. Suffice it to say, if you didn't like "On the Road" you won't like this. Nor will you if you are a student of Buddhism. If you like Kerouac or are 15 years old, you'll probably get a kick out of this. (less)

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Aug 19, 2011

Kate rated it

I gave this book a five-star rating. I read it when I was fourteen, my dad had a first edition paperwork (where is that book today?) and it profoundly effected my outlook on everything from that point forward. Kerouac chronicles, in his usual fantasy way (people have money but seem free from the trappings of earning it -- how do they live? We don't know save for Kerouac describing getting odd day jobs here and there). He aptly described the Beat generation that he was so much a part of and wh...more

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Aug 02, 2011

Sterling rated it

The Dharma Bums wasn't my favorite Kerouac novel; its flow was a little too choppy for my tastes.

I did, however, love a number of pieces of wisdom I found interlaced throughout the book included this:

"Everything was fine with the Zen Lunatics, the nut wagon was too far away to hear us. But there was a wisdom in it all, as you'll see if you take a walk some night on a suburban street and pass house after house on both sides of the street each with the lamplight of t...more

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Jul 25, 2011

Tim rated it

· review of another edition

A shot of strong coffee, a slug of wine, and a splash of mountain water for the soul. Funny, sad, wise and puzzled, Kerouac's narrator/alter-ego leads us along an endearingly open hearted, generous and wisely-naive search for meaning, wisdom and beauty in contemporary America through a delightfully erratic and personal take on Buddhism (of varying kinds)as practiced to varying degrees by himself and his diversely wise/eccentric cast of characters, above all the zen mountaineer Japhy Ryder. Altho...more

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Jul 12, 2011

Anthony rated it

I find that The Dharma Bums is a tad more mature than On the Road, with Kerouac’s protagonist mindfully aware of the contradiction in his need for the dichotomous living of wild city parties and rural escapes as mirrors to the basic human needs for connection with mankind and soul-searching solitude. This mindfulness has much to do with the Buddhist philosophical theme that pervades the story’s motivation. Though I am not Buddhist, I do connect with the need for the peace of solitude and the s...moreI find that The Dharma Bums is a tad more mature than On the Road, with Kerouac’s protagonist mindfully aware of the contradiction in his need for the dichotomous living of wild city parties and rural escapes as mirrors to the basic human needs for connection with mankind and soul-searching solitude. This mindfulness has much to do with the Buddhist philosophical theme that pervades the story’s motivation. Though I am not Buddhist, I do connect with the need for the peace of solitude and the scenes portraying nature are perfect in their simple descriptiveness and ignite my desire to get out of San Francisco and head for the hills and be under the stars. For example, this passage describes the peace that Ray Smith (the protagonist) receives as he goes to sleep in the desert night:

“The silence is so intense that you can hear your own blood roar in your ears but louder than that by far is the mysterious roar which I always identify with the diamond of wisdom, the mysterious roaring of silence itself, which is a great Shhhh reminding you of something you’ve seemed to have forgotten in the stress of your days since birth.” (119)

The something we have forgotten is something I have forgotten, and I’m thankful to Kerouac for reawakening thoughts of peace in my mind. During my reading I was inspired to climb a hill that overlooks my San Francisco neighborhood and take a moment to just sit and breathe in the cold winter air on a peak away from all the busyness of the city and the things I must do. This reading has reminded me that there is sadness in this life that all our wants are in wanting of what is only fleeting and passing, like the closing of good novel that ends to be placed on the shelf, no more.

“Are we all fallen angels who didn’t want to believe that nothing is nothing and so we are born to lose our loved ones and dear friends one by one and finally our own life, to see it proved? … where would it all lead to but some sweet golden eternity, to prove that we’ve all been wrong, to prove that proving itself was nil …” (183)(less)

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Jun 20, 2011

Christopher Culver rated it

Jack Keroauc's 1959 novel THE DHARMA BUMS is a lightly fictionalized account of the author's friendship with the poet Gary Snyder among an underground literary scene fascinated with Buddhism.

In the mid-Fifties, the nomadic writer Ray Smith comes to San Francisco and meets the Buddhist hipster Japhy Ryder. Their backgrounds could not be more different, as Smith is an alcoholic, urban East Coast figure while Ryder grew up in the forests of the Northwest and finds his highs in nature. Ryd...more

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May 24, 2011

Judy rated it

Recommends it for: writers, artists, and seekers

Shelves: 20th-century-fiction, books-from-1958

I first read The Dharma Bums in about 1969. It was our instructional manual on "how to be a hippie." The long, late-night drug and alcohol fueled parties, the disdain for money and suburbia and middle class life, the simple foods and hanging out on the floor. Hiking in the woods, free love, earth mothers and footloose uncommitted men.

As soon as my first husband and I reached San Francisco after driving and camping our way across America from Michigan, we climbed up to Mount ...more

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May 08, 2011

Will Waller rated it

Shelves: auto-biography, fiction, non-fiction, modern

A story of Ray Smith--inncuous name-- who travels the coutnry high on Zen Buddhism, wine and moutnain climbing. Read our a cross-country trip from Philly to Sisters, OR.
* Found the book to be a bit manic and haphazard.
* Lessons: all of people's search for God comes in a variety of packages--the friend who kills herself as a form of contrition for flushing the names of her friend's down a toilet is comical, farcical.
Japhy Zmith's BFF who finds his Nirvana in a whimsical lifestyle ...more

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Dec 06, 2010

Andre rated it

· review of another edition

"You don't realize it's a privilege to practice giving presents to others." -Japhy Ryder

For the last year I've carried this book with me everywhere I've went. Once, I picked up the book and read the first 30 pages and put it back in my bag that holds my laptop. But that was months ago and I was a different person, probably more optimistic about where I was at and where I was headed.

Lately, I've decided to start reading again. Now that I look back on it, I didn't...more

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Jul 19, 2010

Mateo rated it

An empowering book in a mad sort of way. I felt so inspired by Kerouac's accounts of his adventures with the poet Gary Snyder's stand-in Japhy that I had to sit out back in the rain on a soaked-gray swing 'til I had been covered with too many drops of water to count, 'til I was wet enough for every bit of the storm to have tapped me and I felt a bit mad myself, wondering what the folks in their square of the green behind me thought of the young man just sitting, sitting for the storm or the ligh...more

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Jun 12, 2010

John P rated it

· review of another edition

I liked this book more than 'On The Road'. Kerouac could write a decent narrative when he was focused. The big plus of this book over '...Road' is that it had an actual plot line that moved from point A to point B in a manner that engaged me. The descriptions of his travels, the people he meets, and his environment, especially the mountains, are interesting, well-done, and offer a valuable window into the USA of the 1950s.
Unfortunately, it also clearly shows Kerouac as immature, confused, ...more

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May 02, 2010

Dave rated it

A really fun and uplifting read. Oddly, more spontaneous than the acclaimed stream of consciousness "On the Road". This was another of Kerouwac's semi-autobiographical continuous scroll writings so you feel the passion and authenticity of the words and don't get the sense that he labored over word choice or story structure.

This is mainly the story of Ray Smith (Kerouac), his search for Dharma (the truth) and his encounters with his Buddhist mentor Jaffy Ryder (Gary Snyder). ...more

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About Jack Kerouac

Jack Kerouac was an American novelist, writer, poet, and artist. He is perhaps the best known of a group of writers and friends who came to be known as the Beat Generation, a term he himself created.

Kerouac's work was popular, but received little critical acclaim during his lifetime. Today, he is considered an important and influential writer who inspired others, including Tom Robbins,...more

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Quotes from The Dharma Bums

“One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple.” — 1,545 people liked it

“Down on the lake rosy reflections of celestial vapor appeared, and I said, "God, I love you" and looked to the sky and really meant it. "I have fallen in love with you, God. Take care of us all, one way or the other." To the children and the innocent it's all the same.” — 297 people liked it

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