Two ebullient young men are engaged in a passionate search for dharma, or truth. Their major adventure is the pursuit of the Zen way, which takes them climbing into the high Sierras to seek the lesson of solitude, a lesson that has a hard time surviving their forays into the pagan groves of San Francisco's Bohemia with its marathon wine-drinking bouts, poetry jam sessions, experiments in "yabyum," and similar nonascetic pastimes.
Kerouac followed up the 1957 smash On the Road with this novel. Though not as successful as Road, Bums introduced Buddhism and its ideas to the Beats, many of whom began following its traditions. This edition sports Ann Douglas's intro to the 2006 Penguin Classics paperback. Viking also is releasing a hardback of Jack's Wake Up: A Life of Buddha (see below).--Mike Rogers, LJ/LJX (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.