The Dharma Bums (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) Summary and Reviews

The Dharma Bums (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
by Jack Kerouac

The Dharma Bums (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
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Book Summary Information

Author: Jack Kerouac
Illustrator: Jason
Introduction: Ann Douglas
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2006-10-31
ISBN: 0143039601
Number of pages: 224
Publisher: Penguin Classics

Book Reviews of The Dharma Bums (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)

Book Review: Nothing like On the Road
Summary: 3 Stars

The plot is about Ray Smith a thirty-something (I presume), unemployed, hippie who is on the road hopping trains to find his inner Buddha. Eventually, he winds up in California and meets up with Japhy Ryder who he imitates to a T, letting you know full-well that Ray Smith has no mind of his own. They meet other Buddhists, drink wine, talk about Buddhist stuff like the Diamond Sutra, Bhoddisatvas and Bhikkhus, past Buddhas, and they write a lot of haiku poems. All the while, the narrator is constantly bombarding the reader with his strange Buddhist revelations he comes to while praying like "everything is empty but awake", or "rocks are space and space is illusion". It gets old fast.

Ray Smith reminds me of a less-cool Dude from "The Big Lebowski".

You won't find any fascinating stories that Sal Paradise ("On the Road") had of meeting new people wherever he went, jazz clubs and drinking too much, the drugs, the sexual encounters of the women he entertained... nothing.

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