Book 92: "The Dharma Bums" by Jack Kerouac

     Just about everybody has heard of "On the Road" by one of the Founding Fathers of the Beat Generation, Jack Kerouac.  "Dharma Bums" was his follow-up book, published one year later in 1958.  Geoff Gronlund of EFG Books in Bridgton is a big fan of the Beat Generation.  His store features many books by Beat authors and poets.  We talked about "Dharma Bums"on the show.
     Similar to "On the Road", this book is another autobiographical novel based on the writer's adventures in California as he first discovers and then contrasts the spirituality of Buddhism with the commercialism of middle-class American life.
     Kerouac's prediction (in 1958) of a "rucksack generation" that thumbs its nose at conventionality and conformity certainly came true in many places around America over the next 10 to 12 years!