Rating: 
Summary: Like "on the road", but different, perhaps even better
Review:
If you found "On The Road" left you desperate for more of Kerouac's energetic prose, then this is perhaps the best next step. It is a lot more reflective, and this, combined with Kerouac's trademarked humble narrator allows real engagment with a book that deals with something worth writing about. It deals with mountain climbing, outdoor parties, groovy beat people and all the other unattainable, idealistic Kerouac things, but this is laced with fragments of Bhuddism, in the attitudes of the characters, their reflection in the freedom of the mountain experience, and the general escapism that provides so much of Bhuddism's popular appeal - it a sort of diet "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintainance". It's really good - I'm sure you'll enjoy it. It's also less "experimental" in literary terms, meaning here Kerouac is simply conveying a story without trying to re-invent the wheel. In many ways, this is a good introduction to Kerouac. The language is simple; it's also technically a much simpler novel than say "The Subterraneans" or "Dr. Sax," even "On the Road." Kerouac is not pushing the envelope of invention, here. But with all that I must say it's a wonderful book; it's also (dare I say) Kerouac's most "innocent" and sweetest book. There's a disarming earnestness and youthfulness at play in "Dharma Bums," which reminds of a recent Amazon pick I enjoyed "The Losers Club" by Richard Perez. In any event, don't miss this great book!
Rating:
Summary: Worth every penny!
Review:
Man, I don't know where to start. "The Dharma Bums" is a masterpiece of the Beat Generation and a novel I will not soon forget. After The Loser's Club by Richard Perez, this is the best book I've read all year.
Jack Kerouac wrote this story about his days as a Zen Buddhist and rucksack wanderer. His alias in the book is Raymond Smith, and he is living in Berkley with his good buddy Alvah Goldbook(Allen Ginsburg). Ray meets a Zen Lunatic named Japhy Ryder(Gary Snyder), and together they travel the mountains and pastures of Central California trying to find themselves and find the true meaning of life. Ray also journies to Desolation Peak in Washington and lives there alone for the summer, which is just another chapter to this amazing piece of literature.
Another part of this book that impressed me was the beginning, when Kerouac wrote about his experience at the San Francisco Poetry Renaissance, and spoke of Alvah Goldbook's first reading of his poem "Wail", which in reality was Allen Ginsburg's legendary first reading of "Howl", which to this day is a Beat Literature classic.
While reading this book, I was constantly marking lines and passages, because some of the descriptions and poetry Kerouac included in this novel are simply amazing. "The Dharma Bums" is one of those books I will treasure forever and read over and over again.
Rating: 
Summary: "The Dharma Bums"- A search for Truth in the woods
Review: Jack Kerouac wrote this story about his youthful days as an ebullient Zen Buddhist and rucksack hitchhiker in the 60's. His alias in the book is Raymond Smith, and he is living in a shack in Berkley, CA with his good friend Alvah Goldbook. Ray meets a Zen Lunatic named Japhy Ryder(Gary Snyder), and together they travel the wilderness of Central California where they recite poetry, drink wine, meditate, make haikus about every natural object, while trying to find themselves and seek the true meaning of life as beatniks. Ray Smith also criss-crosses the country again, home for the holidays, and then back to Berkeley. While at home he wanders through forest time and again, to center himself with nature and his surroundings, meditating there through the cold months like a real Buddhist Monk.
I was surely impressed by this book. I even jotted down many meaningful Buddhist passages and quotes that Kerouac mentioned in the novel This work of literature by Kerouac is less "experimental" in literary terms compared to something like "Satori in Paris" by Kerouac. For those of you who have not had any past experience with Kerouac's writing style this will not be of any difficulty. The language is simple, the prose is right to the point, and there is hardly a bit of surrealism. Many of the sections are quite humorous because of the quirkiness and new ideas on Buddhism that are slipped in between the sentences, along with predictable scenes of the beatnik life hood (drug use and slang). Ray Smith purely goes about making light comments about life without being the author's speaker. This is a positive and heart fulfilling youthful adventure that displays immense compassion.
Rating:
Summary: the kerouacian
Review: dharma bums by far kerouac's best work, wonderfully displaying his spontaneous prose and immense compassion.
Rating:
Summary: A cool drink
Review: DHARMA BUMS came out a year after ON THE ROAD. While the latter is the beat manifesto celebrating the peripatetic lifestyle, BUMS focuses on the beat romance with Buddhist enlightenment and the building of an inner life. ON THE ROAD was an instant, memorable success, and while BUMS no doubt fed a desire for more of the same, it stands apart, its own satisfying work of art, its own way of sending telegraphs from the heart of the beat movement. Many of the episodes are based on actual events and experiences that were still fresh memories as the book was written.Ray Smith is the first person narrator of DHARMA BUMS, a look alike for Jack Kerouac. For most of the book, he slyly puts Japhy Ryder at the center of attention. Ryder is a stand-in for poet Gary Snyder who survives, who as a young man in his twenties was already a natural leader. Surrounding them are other familiar figures from the era, including Alvah Goldbook (translates to Allen Ginsberg). They all write poetry and love jazz, women, and a casual lifestyle. They seek spiritual enlightenment. They delight in trolling for clothes in the Good Will and Army and Navy stores, they savor the simplest meal over a campfire. They are the Dharma Bums, rejecting the paralyzed emptiness they ascribe to middle class life. I really like this book. The prose is clear and concrete, even when sorting through abstract notions. It is often funny. Kerouac had extraordinary insight into individual nuances and desires, and plays them into the tension of the journey and the sorting out. He had a gift for seeing how outsiders might perceive him and his crowd and how history might come to interpret the present he was portraying. Though he is legendarily perceived as a spontaneous artist, there is extraordinary control and shape imposed on these pages. Only twice does he momentarily break his world: once, in my edition, he slips and refers to Japhy as Gary, and another time, slipping out of the immediacy of the action, he pays a compliment to a simple meal on the road, noting that even as a lionized young writer in New York, he had not had a better meal in an upscale restaurant. Those curious nanoseconds can be forgiven, however. This book is a joy.
Rating:
Summary: On the Road with The Dharma Bums
Review: I first met Kerouac in the early 70s, when I was finishing my sentence in college. He inspired me to actually go on the road and hitch hike across the country several times (something I would no longer recommend). I learned about America through Jack. Dharma Bums taught me that there was another side to thought and life than the ones I had been living. While he himself was self destructive, I have incorporated many of his philosophies thorughout my lfe, and continue to search for truth and beauty, even while amid lies and ugliness. Trying to explain Dharma Bums and its philosophies to my teenage daughter is a trip. She just looks at me as though I'd lost my mind, which I no doubt did years ago when I first ran in to the stories of Kerouac. It's sad to think that the ideas and lifestyles he enshrines are dying out, if not dead all ready. Anyone looking for a boost into the beat world, or an explanation for what made it so "in" 50 years ago would best be advised to read Dharma Bums, and On The Road. Nuff said.
Rating:
Summary: On the Dharma Road
Review: I think that The Dharma Bums is probably Kerouac's best novel. It has all the exitement and electricity of On the Road, plus a lot of Buddhist instrospection and meditation. This is Kerouac at his best. He had mastered his craft, and had yet to slip into alcoholism and self destruction. In fact Kerouac does have a sweetness and innocence and a love of life, of nature, of dharma; and it makes me sad to think of what became of him later. One might get the wrong idea about Buddhism. Kerouac and his buddies spend a lot of time drinking wine and smoking tea which really doesn't go very well with Buddhist practice. But they were truly pioneers as there were very few Buddhist teachers and no Buddhist practice centers in the US. They either had to invent their own form of Buddhism (as Kerouac did) or go to Asia. One thing this book has in common with On the Road is that it does involve a lot of travel. He journeys northward from southern California to San Francisco in a boxcar. Then travels across country to stay with his sister in North Carolina where he meditates and prays in the woods. And the book closes with a journey north to Washington state instead of south the Mexico as On The Road does. Instead of Neal Cassady we have Gary Snyder as Kerouac's friend. Finally, after a series of adventures in the bay area and on a back packing trip with a character whom I believe is based on Kerouac's friend Philip Whalen, Snyder departs for a zen monestary in Japan (he wouldn't return from Asia until the mid sixties and the two friends never saw each other again). Its a bit ironic that Allen Ginsburg (Goldberg in the novel) was initially skeptical of the Buddhist teachings but later became more devoted to it than Kerouac, becoming a diciple of the Tibetan teacher Chogyam Trungpa. Whalen became a zen priest and lived for years at the San Francisco Zen Center. But this was Kerouac at his peak. His most blissful and holy. His golden dream of life in the Buddhalands.
Rating:
Summary: one of kerouac's finest
Review: I've heard it said that this is Kerouac's greatest novel. I still say that honor is held by On the Road, but this book is just as good. And it is his most spiritual novel. Kerouac combines his talent at writing with his philosophy of life and what you have is a powerful tool to enlightenment. This book should be read on at least two levels, as a work of great literature and as a theological tool. I can't recommend it enough.
Rating:
Summary: The Rhythm of Life is a Powerful Beat
Review: Jack Kerouac is every wanderers' fantasy author. A man who spent many years traversing the country back and forth, living virtually hand to mouth most of the time...sleeping under the stars, practicing yoga in the woods on a winter's night...there isn't much in his works to not set afire the heart of a drifter.
Though this novel has a lesser 'landscape' than On The Road, Dharma Bums is every bit as much of a journey for the author. At a time when one of his close friends had influenced his interest in Buddhism, Kerouac criss-crosses the country again, home for the holidays, and then back to California. While home, he wanders to the woods time and again, to center himself with nature and his surroundings, and stays on through the cold months.
Eventually, the thought of his friends and free-wheeling existence in California draw him back, where he finds some changes to the people he left there, but ever the chameleon, Ray Smith (Kerouac) assimilates himself back into the hive of Beats he holds dear.
Kerouac's writings especially appeal to the 'adventurer boy' I left behind when adulthood called. Though some might call Kerouac's existence rootless and irresponsible...there is something magnetic (to me) about the way he lived, at least how it is detailed in his body of autobiographical literature. And though I know his own personal demons are only partially displayed in his books....I still want to be Jack Kerouac when I grow up.
Dharma Bums is highly recommended as either an introduction or a continuation of reading this exceptional author.
Rating:
Summary: Possibly Kerouac's Best
Review: Kerouac's "Dharma Bums" extends his recurring theme of one man's quest to find true freedom of mind and soul. Equally colorful characters are scattered throughout, just as in "On the Road." I suspect that every reader of Kerouac comes away from the experience with a slightly different outlook on life. In my opinion, very few books ever accomplish this feat and Kerouac seems to do it with each and every work.
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