Thursday, November 29, 2012
The Dharma Bums
I read it, I guess, when I was in the seventh or eighth grade, and I have no idea how I got hold of it, or why I decided to read it. Probably Kerouac was one of the authors featured in the publisher's promotional material in the backs of the other books I read in those days, or he was getting an endorsement from one of my bookish friends. reading was a haphazard affair in those days.
...
Possibly I never read this book after all; I took a copy out of the library and nothing about it seems familiar. On the other hand, I know a minimal amount of trivia about On The Road, but I am pretty sure that is mere cultural leakage and not genuine familiarity. I remember an orange cover; did The Dharma Bums have an orange cover?
Whatever the truth (and we all know there is no truth), I probably stepped sideways into Kerouac, however briefly, because he bore a vague resemblance,at least in the eyes of publishers, to Richard Brautigan, whose books I read enthusiastically in those days. A family resemblance, maybe second-cousinish.
Brautigan's The Abortion certainly had an orange cover. I have a copy on one of these shelves.
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I don't know when I read Dharma Bums but it was years after I read On the Road for the third time. Though I still love On the Road and there are lines that will always stow away in my mind, Dharma Bums had a much greater impact on me and the way I thought about the world. I wanted to find a mountain to climb or a fire tower to posses. Wanted? Want. Maybe I'll read it again.
ReplyDeleteI remember the fire tower, so maybe I did read it. I think I must have tried Kerouac too young, and maybe now I'm too old to go back to it. but i am looking for something to read right now...
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