What Happened Later

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Poetic, poignant, and clever, this unique story explores how two lives were transformed by one book. In 1967, Jack Kerouac, a once-celebrated author, finds himself a physically broken and spiritually lost man. Accompanied by his friend Joe Chaput, he embarks on a chaotic journey to Riviere-du-Loup, Quebec, seeking to reconnect with his French-Canadian roots. This trip ends in disaster, and just over two years later, Kerouac passes away. Fast forward fifteen years, a working-class teenager from Ontario named Ray Robertson becomes captivated by the myth of Kerouac. He embarks on his own quest to acquire a copy of On the Road, facing numerous rejections along the way. Despite these setbacks, Robertson begins to see a world beyond the confines of his small-town life and starts to understand his own French-Canadian heritage. The novel, titled after Kerouac's proposed sequel to On the Road, delves into the aftermath of Kerouac's fame and the journey of a young man enchanted by the legendary author. By intertwining Kerouac's decline with Robertson's literary awakening, the narrative examines the complex interplay of myth and reality, loss and hope, innocence and experience, and the cyclical nature of beginnings and endings.