{"product_id":"wake-up-a-life-of-the-buddha-9780143116011","title":"Wake Up: A Life of the Buddha","description":"\u003cb\u003e\"[\u003ci\u003eWake Up\u003c\/i\u003e] contributes significantly to the fascinating picture of Kerouac's spirituality, revealing the depth of Kerouac's identification with the Buddha.\"--\u003ci\u003eThe Beat Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"The long, streaming style makes the book majestic and something that you absorb in one sitting, like a symphony.\"--Robert A. F. Thurman, from the Introduction\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn the mid-1950s, lifelong Catholic Jack Kerouac became fascinated with Buddhism, an interest that had a profound impact on his ideas of spirituality and later found expression in such works as \u003ci\u003eMexico City Blues \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eThe Dharma Bums. \u003c\/i\u003eOriginally written in 1955, \u003ci\u003eWake Up \u003c\/i\u003eis Kerouac's retelling of the life of Prince Siddhartha Gotama, who as a young man abandoned his wealthy family and comfortable home for a lifelong search for enlightenment. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eDistilled from a wide variety of canonical scriptures, \u003ci\u003eWake Up \u003c\/i\u003eserves as both a penetrating account of the Buddha's life and a concise primer on the principal teachings of Buddhism. This edition includes an insightful introduction by Buddhist scholar Robert Thurman addressing Kerouac's engagement with Buddhism in his work and his life.\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":50911215124754,"sku":"9780143116011","price":12.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_f22964fc-9f46-4aa2-917f-ef5a5b0b5b8e.jpg?v=1738733928","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/wake-up-a-life-of-the-buddha-9780143116011","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}