Ray Robertson Książki

Inspired by the exploits of ill-fated country-rock visionary Gram Parsons, this mid-60s tale of idealism and escape traces the trials of a fictionalized draft-dodging flower child from the United States to Canada and back. It is the late 1960s in Yorkville, Toronto's hippie ghetto of artists, intellectuals, drunken poets, and would-be rock stars. In this idyllic haven, narrator Bill Hansen, a drummer, meets Thomas Graham, an American musician on the lam from the draft. The two form a band, but even as they revel in music and freedom, Graham is hobbled by another love: a drug habit that becomes his reason for living and, eventually, for dying. Graham's emotional trip and failed, revolutionary life reflect the rise and fall of an entire generation's aspirations.

Poetic, poignant, and clever, this unique story explores how two lives were transformed by one book. In 1967, Jack Kerouac, a once-celebrated author, finds himself a physically broken and spiritually lost man. Accompanied by his friend Joe Chaput, he embarks on a chaotic journey to Riviere-du-Loup, Quebec, seeking to reconnect with his French-Canadian roots. This trip ends in disaster, and just over two years later, Kerouac passes away. Fast forward fifteen years, a working-class teenager from Ontario named Ray Robertson becomes captivated by the myth of Kerouac. He embarks on his own quest to acquire a copy of On the Road, facing numerous rejections along the way. Despite these setbacks, Robertson begins to see a world beyond the confines of his small-town life and starts to understand his own French-Canadian heritage. The novel, titled after Kerouac's proposed sequel to On the Road, delves into the aftermath of Kerouac's fame and the journey of a young man enchanted by the legendary author. By intertwining Kerouac's decline with Robertson's literary awakening, the narrative examines the complex interplay of myth and reality, loss and hope, innocence and experience, and the cyclical nature of beginnings and endings.

In Zeiten entgleisender Depressionen im öffentlichen wie im privaten Raum, schöpft Ray Robertson aus Literatur, Philosophie und seiner Biografie, um die Wertschätzung der Existenz zu rehabilitieren. Mit Verve und Humor rühmen seine Kapitel immerwährende Freuden, für die es sich zu leben lohnt – darunter naheliegende wie Freundschaft und Liebe, und näherliegende wie Rauschzustände und Besitztümer. Eine durch und durch reanimierende Kollektion. Philosophie, todernst und urkomisch Das Überlebensbuch für erschöpfte Egos Eigenes Vorwort für die deutsche Ausgabe