{"product_id":"separate-reality-book-perseus-9780786717156","title":"A Separate Reality","description":"Set 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.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49589776482577,"sku":"GOR013118567","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52144996745489,"sku":"NLS9780786717156","price":25.29,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53348661788945,"sku":"NIN9780786717156","price":24.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0786717157.jpg?v=1750849267","url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/products\/separate-reality-book-perseus-9780786717156","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}