I am a big fan of Beat Generation author and poet Jack Kerouac, so was happy to find a new edition of my favourite Kerouac book, The Dharma Bums whilst mooching around my local bookshop. This special edition from Penguin Classics features special cover art from Norwegian cartoonist Jason.
First published just one year after On The Road, The Dharma Bums relates the adventures of a jolly band of Beatniks in a freewheeling exploration of Buddhism and the search for Truth. Main characters Ray Smith (based on Kerouac himself) and Japhy Ryder (based on American poet Gary Snyder – pictured above), search for Truth the Zen way: from marathon wine-drinking bouts, poetry jam sessions, and “yabyum” in San Francisco’s Bohemia to solitude in the high Sierras and a vigil atop Desolation Peak in Washington State.
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