The Dharma Bums

OK.  I do love the journey of life books, you know I say that often, don’t I?  So this one was an interesting read, though very “period specific” – i.e. the pre-hippie age (in my opinion).  The Dharma Bums tells tales of travel around the US on foot, hitchhiking, jumping trains, looking for my peaceful self.  The central character, Ray, is said to be crafted after the author himself, Jack Kerouac, and the influential mentor, Japhy Ryder, is Gary Snyder, a man who introduced Kerouac to Buddhism.  Ray attempts to find peace and the meaning of life on Desolation Peak in the state of Washington to preparing a meal for a truck driver in the deserts of the Southwest US.  The travels around and around and around the US is tiring; stopping off to his mother’s in Ohio, back to the Southwest, Cali, Northwest Coast, back East and back again.  This seemingly endless search for something is characteristic in many ways (to me) of the lack of meaning that I often see in drifters who believe the grass is greener elsewhere.  While that is not the intent of the trips, as I read it, it does give one the sense of traveling to something and never finding it.  Though Japhy does seem to find it in his final trip by leaving everyone behind (he even throws the woman he just had sex with the past evening off the ship) and heading to Japan.   I did enjoy the concept of giving and how important it is to the Buddhist tradition, a spiritual tradition I am less aware of in the scheme of most traditions.  The finding of self has always been important to me on my journey.   Being the youngest of 6 growing up in the late 60s (I was 5 ok… not that old), I do understand the significance Kerouac’s writings had on the generation, just not connecting with me.  I was able to read this one in a few hours.  Again, timing of books is critical in whether it connects with you or not.  I’ll have to find a better time to read it I guess…  I’d pass on this one.