Ray Robertson
Author of Moody Food: A Novel
About the Author
Poetic, poignant and clever, "What Happened Later" is a unique and engaging story of two lives that were forever changed by one book.In 1967, only ten years after the sensational success of ON THE ROAD, Jack Kerouac was a physically broken, spiritually lost man. Late that summer, accompanied by his show more friend, Joe Chaput, Kerouac set out for Riviere-du-Loup, Quebec, on a spiritual quest to connect with his French-Canadian roots. Predictably, the trip was a drunken, chaotic disaster, and a little more than two years afterward, Kerouac was dead.Fifteen years later, after falling under the spell of the larger-than-life-myth of Jack Kerouac, a working-class, small-town Ontario teenager named Ray Robertson embarked upon his own quest--to own a copy of ON THE ROAD. Rebuffed at every turn in his attempt to possess the elusive novel, Robertson nonetheless slowly begins to recognize the existence of a world beyond the factories, hockey rinks and suburbs of his hometown, and also begins to comprehend his own French-Canadian heritage.Taking its title from Kerouac himself--"What Happened Later" was the title of his proposed sequel to ON THE ROAD--this novel tells the story of what happened after the fame generated by Kerouac's famous book and what happened next in the life of a young man infatuated with the legendary author.Interweaving the story of one author's slow decline with one boy's literary coming of age, "What Happened Later" explores the ever-shifting dualities of myth and reality, loss and hope, innocence and experience, endings and beginnings. show less
Works by Ray Robertson
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- Canada
- Places of residence
- Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Chatham, Ontario, Canada - Agent
- Samantha Haywood (Transatlantic Literary Agency)
Members
Reviews
Awards
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 20
- Members
- 258
- Popularity
- #88,950
- Rating
- 3.6
- Reviews
- 12
- ISBNs
- 49
- Languages
- 1
- Favorited
- 2
Sadly, the settlement had only a bit part and the plot seemed to go nowhere.… (more)