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: 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: 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.
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: the kerouacian
Review: dharma bums by far kerouac's best work, wonderfully displaying his spontaneous prose and immense compassion.
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