{"product_id":"9780786717156","title":"A Separate Reality","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cdiv\u003eSet in the early 1970s, \u003ci\u003eA  Separate Reality\u003c\/i\u003e is the story of Mark Grosfeld, a twelve-year-old  growing up in Phoenix with politically active liberal Jewish parents.  Mark, who is lonely and unhappy, meets Anna Voigt, a teacher who becomes  his mentor. Anna, an ex-hippie poet, encourages Mark to write, and he  becomes part of a circle of teenagers who meet at Anna's house to smoke  pot and read poetry. She introduces him to the Beats, Zen Buddhism and  the popular pseudo-anthropologist, Carlos Castaneda, author of \u003ci\u003eJourney  to Ixtlan\u003c\/i\u003e. Mark goes on a semi-comic suburban vision quest, trying to  conduct his life according to the teachings he uncovers in the books he  finds through Anna - most significantly, Castaneda's. Mark soon  discovers all these books share the belief that through a loss of \"self\"  one can, somehow, transcend reality. \u003ci\u003eA Separate Reality\u003c\/i\u003e is a novel  about the risks and appeal of the desire to be perfect; a portrait of  the artist as a young man in the Seventies.\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Robert Marshall","offers":[{"title":"Grand Central Publishing |  Paperback \/ softback  |  2006-10-10","offer_id":46829961314559,"sku":"9780786717156","price":31.99,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0329\/9075\/7001\/files\/Aseparatereality.jpg?v=1746293928","url":"https:\/\/riverbookshop.com\/products\/9780786717156","provider":"River Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}