{"product_id":"visions-of-gerard-9780140144529","title":"Visions of Gerard","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe first novella in Jack Kerouac's Duluoz Legend, detailing the writer's early life as refracted through the prism of the untimely loss of his brother\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"The earliest and most heartfelt chapter of Kerouac's fictionalized autobiography.\"--Ann Charters\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003e\"His life . . . ended when he was nine and the nuns of St. Louis de France Parochial School were at his bedside to take down his dying words because they'd heard his astonishing revelations of heaven delivered in catechism on no more encouragement than it was his turn to speak.\"\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eUnique among Jack Kerouac's novels, \u003ci\u003eVisions of Gerard\u003c\/i\u003e captures the scenes and sensations of earliest childhood, the first four years in the life of Ti Jean Duluoz as they unfold in the short, tragic-happy life of his brother, Gerard. Set in Kerouac's hometown of Lowell, Massachusetts, childhood's intensity, innocence, suffering, and delight unfold as Gerard interacts with animals, has visions of Our Lady in heaven, astonishes the priest in the church confessional, and observes his family as they laugh and drink and weep--that is, when he isn't sick and confined to bed. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eA novel that Kerouac called \"my best most serious sad and true book yet,\" \u003ci\u003eVisions of Gerard\u003c\/i\u003e is a beautiful, unsettling, and melancholic exploration of the meaning and precariousness of existence.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eJack Kerouac\u003c\/b\u003e was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1922, the youngest of three children in a Franco-American family. He attended local Catholic and public schools and won a scholarship to Columbia University in New York City, where he first met Neal Cassady, Allen Ginsberg, and William S. Burroughs. His first novel, \u003ci\u003eThe Town and the City\u003c\/i\u003e, appeared in 1950, but it was \u003ci\u003eOn the Road\u003c\/i\u003e, published in 1957 and memorializing his adventures with Neal Cassady, that epitomized to the world what became known as the \"Beat generation\" and made Kerouac one of the most best-known writers of his time. Publication of many other books followed, among them \u003ci\u003eThe Dharma Bums\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Subterraneans\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eBig Sur\u003c\/i\u003e. Kerouac considered all of his autobiographical fiction to be part of \"one vast book,\" \u003ci\u003eThe Duluoz Legend\u003c\/i\u003e. He died in St. Petersburg, Florida, in 1969, at the age of forty-seven.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Penguin Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50491527954706,"sku":"9780140144529","price":16.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_0d996b7f-9855-4fb1-8d9c-327b8105901d.jpg?v=1730542624","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/visions-of-gerard-9780140144529","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}