Jack Kerouac: The Dharma Bums (1967, Signet)
Paperback
Published Dec. 1, 1967 by Signet.
The Dharma Bums is a 1958 novel by Beat Generation author Jack Kerouac. The basis for the novel's semi-fictional accounts are events occurring years after the events of On the Road. The main characters are the narrator Ray Smith, based on Kerouac, and Japhy Ryder, based on the poet and essayist Gary Snyder, who was instrumental in Kerouac's introduction to Buddhism in the mid-1950s.
The book concerns duality in Kerouac's life and ideals, examining the relationship of the outdoors, mountaineering, hiking, and hitchhiking through the west US with his "city life" of jazz clubs, poetry readings, and drunken parties. The protagonist's search for a "Buddhist" context to his experiences (and those of others he encounters) recurs throughout the story. The book had a significant influence on the Hippie counterculture of the 1960s.
He lost me right around the time when his benevolent, wealthy family back east happily took him back in with little complaint. Not being an option for me personally, I began to resent what I then saw as a sort of laziness, rather than admirable daring to live an unconventional life.
