{"product_id":"a-separate-reality-paperback","title":"A Separate Reality - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eSet in the early 1970s, A Separate Reality 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 Journey to Ixtlan. 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. A Separate Reality 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\/p\u003e","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51370100031711,"sku":"9780786717156","price":24.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/i-yIp_HNbA9780786717156.webp?v=1789150356","url":"https:\/\/blackandbarhe.com\/products\/a-separate-reality-paperback","provider":"Black \u0026 Barhe Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}