Author: Kerouac, Jack

(THE) DHARMA BUMS by Jack Kerouac, at $14.00 from Penguin Books, ISBN 0140042520 - 9780140042528. This autobiographical novel appeared just a year after On the Road put the Beat generation on the literary map and Kerouac on the best-seller lists. The same expansiveness, humor, and zest for life ignites this story of two young men on a passionate search for dharma, or truth. The quest takes them from bohemian San Francisco to the high Sierras to the ascetic realm of Zen. Japhy Ryder, Kerouac's companion in the quest, is based on poet and lifelong Buddhist Gary Snyder. 224 pp. August.