The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Dharma Bums
Book Review: Failed Enlightenment
Summary: 2 Stars
I am surprised how well this book has been reviewed thus far, so I'll add a counterpoint...Dharma Bums soars in points, but these are very few and far between. Indeed it would be charitable to refer to it as flawed.
There are considerable questions to be asked about the female characters in the book. All are flimsy, naive and one-dimensional. I'm not a crazy feminist nutcase, but the women here really are almost cartoon characters, which make Betty Boo look like Germaine Greer.
Kerouac name drops elements of Buddhism, but fails to provide any real illumination or exploration on the central subject. Similarly with its brief mention of haikus, which seem bolted on to add credibility.
In the end I was saddened by this book, so I'd recommend it only to Kerouac completists, or to those people who are prepared to forgive its multifarious faults in the hunt for its scant gems.
Book Review: Another muse for Kerouac
Summary: 4 Stars
...this short novel is one of his better works. OK, so it's not as sharp a prosody as "On the Road", but then Kerouac is dwelling in heavier waters, deeply immersed in Buddhist teachings and enlightened hobo-wanderings.
He again has his muse - the startlingly grounded Japhy Ryder (a metamorphosis of poet Gary Snyder), a far cry from the hard-drinking Dean Moriaty.
He again has his America, not the astral-jazz urban America of the Subterraneans or Road, but the desolate America of dead trails and unbearable space.
Existentialist moments up the mountain are burdened by a holy loneliness, dulled by wine and Kerouac's ...wide-eyed naivety. But then written pre-Flower Generation, pre-Vietnam, pre-AIDS, an exultation of existence was a viable option rather than a cynical rejoinder.
Book Review: Superb
Summary: 5 Stars
Some people wonder what all the hype is about with Kerouac. Even I have found some of his other works tiring in places, although there is no doubting his unique style and his genius.Dharma Bums is my favourite - not just my favourite Kerouac but quite possibly my favourite book ever. Gentle and easy to read it is also at times evocative and deep. It touches on Zen Buddhism without trying to be clever or philisophical and is in some ways sad and in others heartwarming.
If you've ever struggled with Kerouac, or Zen for that matter, this is a good place to start again.
Book Review: Better Than 'On The Road'
Summary: 5 Stars
Following the huge success of 'On The Road' Kerouac had the chance to publish some of his manuscripts that he had been carrying around the country from house to house for nearly ten years.
One of the first was the magnificent 'Dharma Bums', a semi-autobiographical account of his time on the West Coast in the company of Gary Snyder and Allen Ginsberg. Kerouac portrays himself as 'Ray Smith' and Snyder appears as the hero of the piece, a mountain-conquering poet Japhy Ryder. Ginsberg is thinly disguised as Alva Goldbook.
The piece centres on Kerouac and Snyder's trip into the mountains and the poetry scene around San Francisco in the mid 1950s. The famous 6 gallery reading that kicked off the Beat revolution is fictionalised.
A beautifully observed book, full of the lightness of the mountains and the allure of Buddhism, it is Kerouac at his finest. It lacks the relentless energy of 'On The Road', but has instead a simple charm of its own. One of the first books that kick-started the 'rucksack revolution', a must for the secret hippy in all of us.
Book Review: Worth every penny!
Summary: 5 Stars
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.