The Dharma Bums Paperback – May 27, 1971

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started reading The Dharma Bums. I didn’t remember much about Jack Kerouac’s writing having read On The Road, many back in the day years ago; the experience was stuck in my mind's dusty archives. I wasn’t the same person who read On The Road back then, I was here now in the present suspecting I might be a Dharma Bum of sorts myself.

The Dharma Bums is a cultural walk-about America in the late 1950’s with the spread of suburbia, a growing middle class with an increasing addiction to television and sameness. It also includes vivid and beautiful representations of natural phenomenon from the desert to the high mountains. The characters that Ray Smith, the narrator of the story, meets in his travels range from intellectuals, artists, poets and beatnik friends, to hobos he meets as he hops fast freight trains up the California Coast or thumbs rides with truck drivers and others while he travels across the country a couple of times. He carries his home on his back and to some extent depends on the good will of those he meets on his path. He meditates in the desert, mountain meadows and the woods. He exchanges what he has learned with his fellow Dharma Bums and gains insight from them and his travels. At times Ray Smith and his Dharma buddies seem like modern-day bhikkhu (monks), each on the path of enlightenment in their own way.

This is a trip that anyone can enjoy, from the first time Ray Smith, the main character, hops a freight train, headed North up the California coast. Even though it was written some time ago it feels contemporary and relevant today. One thing I knew as I began reading The Dharma Bums, was that Jack Kerouac knows how to tell a story. I also became happily aware that this book was an adventure entwined with the basis of Mindfulness including the “Four Noble Truths” and the “Eight-fold Path;” a Bodhisattva’s journey looking for nothing, knowing and not knowing. The two main characters Ray Smith and Japhy Ryder are on a quest for truth that finds them climbing mountains in the high sierras, partying with San Fransisco Bohemians, and others and writing their own poetry.

“…Pray tell us, good buddy, and don’t make it muddy, who played this trick, on Harry and Dick, and why is so mean this Eternal Scene, just what’s the point, of this whole joint? I thought maybe I could find out at last from these Dharma Bums.” -- Jack Kerouac -- The Dharma Bums

I’d be willing to bet that a lot of people these days may not know much about Jack Kerouac. I wonder if his work is read in high school or college English classes? It should be. Probably banned in Texas or Alabama, like Salinger's Catcher In The Rye. Kerouac was born in Lowell Massachusetts in 1922, went to public school and ended up with a scholarship to Columbia in New York City where he met Neal Cassady, Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs who turn up in The Dharma Bums. Kerouac died in St. Pete Florida in 1969 at the age of forty-seven.

Those who do remember Jack Kerouac would probably think of the classic “On The Road” that was published in 1957 and made Kerouac one of the most appreciated writers of that time. “On The Road” came to personify what was called the “Beat Generation.” Other books followed including those in what Kerouac included in the “The Duluoz Legend Series” including The Dharma Bums, The Subterraneans, Big Sur, other novels and poetry. But Kerouac’s writing is a lot more than “Beat Generation” tales.

The Dharma Bums was published in 1958, after On the Road. Written in College Park, a neighborhood in Orlando, Florida. It is a subtle, non-preachy primer, in some ways, on certain concepts found in Buddhism, in particular Zen Buddhism. But written as a novel, in Kerouac’s rhythmic, descriptive and first person conversational storytelling style, these notions come up naturally. Words, sentences and paragraphs loose their individual functions as they create a new actuality, moving, nudging and seducing the reader into the strokes and colors of the author's word paintings.

“But I had my own little bangtail ideas and they had nothing to do with the ‘lunatic’ part of this. I wanted to get me a full pack complete with everything necessary to sleep, shelter, eat, cook, in fact a regular kitchen and bedroom right on my back, and go off somewhere and find perfect solitude and look into the perfect emptiness of my mind and be completely neutral from any and all ideas. I intended to pray, too, as my only activity, pray for all living creatures; I saw it was the only decent activity left in the world. To be in some riverbottom somewhere, or in a desert, or in mountains, or in some hut in Mexico or shack in Adirondack, and rest and be kind, and do nothing else, practice what the Chinese call ‘do-nothing.” I didn’t want to have anything to do, really, either with Japhy’s ideas about society (I figured it would be better just to avoid it altogether, walk around it) or with any of Alvah’s ideas about grasping after life as much as you can because of its sweet sadness and because you would be dead some day.” -- Jack Kerouac The Dharma Bums

Ray Smith’s journey moves along spontaneously and as fast paced as Jack Kerouac’s prose. This timeless story is hard to put down with a bonus if you are interested in Dharma, mindfulness and Buddhist philosophy; you will find many moments in the book with which to relate. Beyond the philosophy you will find a artfully crafted novel that is engaging and classic, as a spiritual journey to find self or perhaps no self. Jack Kerouac, intentionally or not created his own Buddha book of "sutras" and left them with us. JRMartin

This was my first Jack Kerouac read and absolutely fell in love.

Easy read that goes quick. Jack is definitely not timid with his ideas, so be prepared for sections that you may not agree with. Overall, highly recommend this book, especially if you have ever wondered/dabbled in eastern religion/philosophy.

I made the mistake of reading this book while waiting in line for the doors to open during a Black Friday sale. It was on the third day of my overnight camping spree in the front of our only towns Best Buy store. I was just waking up from a power nap and I decided to find something to read on my kindle tablet. Looking back on it, it was a funny coincidence because I remember feeling like a bum--camping on the ground for the third day in a row--and I searched the word "bum" on my kindle. This book popped up and I liked the illustrations on the cover so I bought it and began to read. By about the 22nd page I was rethinking my entire life and wondering why I stopped living so freely as I used to in my earlier years of life. In my twenties I was a reckless idealist who chased after the fairy tale love and smoked copious amounts of mind altering substances. Tens of pounds on the weekends and nearly a pound a day during the week....my father was a business man so there was never an empty jar in the house or lack of Bic lighters near the nightstand. Anyway I've settled into the cushy resolve as a software engineer and have lost sight of many dreams I used to have as a lost young man. This book stirred something in me as I continued to read it. I found myself not blessing anyone who sneezed anymore, I rediscovered the joy of crapping into my sweatpants and letting the soil run slowly to the finish line of my shoe tops and I went home. Black Friday sales suck and this book is super tits. Buy it and live again!

What a great American classic. I loved this book, the adventure of it, and the search for higher purpose and meaning that the characters take you on. Being a huge fan of Kerouac, I'd recommend any of his books.

If you're new to Jack Kerouac, this might be the place to start. Many people's first introduction to Kerouac is On The Road. While I love On The Road, I've read pretty much all of Kerouac's novels, and I have to say that The Dharma Bums is my favorite.

Indeed, I loved the book enough to write a companion reader for it (The Beat Handbook: 100 Days of Kerouactions), so right up front I have a bias and thought you should know about that.

In at least one of his letters (Jack Kerouac: Selected Letters: Volume 2), Kerouac himself acknowledged that The Dharma Bums was 'really bettern ON THE ROAD' (p. 99). So, if you don't take my word for it, maybe you will take the author's and make this your first foray into beat literature. I don't think you'll regret it.

It's interesting. I understand he died of alcohol related ailments. It make sense. So many references to drinking! Poor guy. But the book is a classic. Very insightful, down-to-earth and a pleasure to journey through. Much of it is inspirational.

This is a wonderful tale full of Jack's adventures across the country and in California specifically. His description of climbing Matterhorn in the Eastern Sierras inspires me to seek my own adventures, and the way he recounts his bohemian spring in Marin County is enchanting. Finally, his stream-of-consciousness prose makes this novel a quick and whimsical read. After reading this book you'll want to practice your own meditation techniques.