{"product_id":"pure-act-9780823276820","title":"Pure Act","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA biography of experimental poet and spiritual seeker Robert Lax, who inspired Thomas Merton, Jack Kerouac and many others. Using information and stories drawn from journal entries, letters, interviews and the author’s personal recollections, the book chronicles the development of Lax’s distinctive poetic style and a spontaneous, spiritual approach to life he called pure act.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Presenting Lax as an embodiment of the \"wisdom of simplicity\" and himself as a \"naive boy who had washed up on his shores\", McGregor becomes both unobtrusive character and reliable narrator in this text, connected to Lax by the author's own need for personal searching.\" -The Merton Seasonal \"This is a biography to which I will return for inspiration.\" -Rev. Ted Huffman \"Biographer Michael McGregor periodically visited [Lax] in Greece starting in 1985; his authorial reflections set the tone and character for his excellent biography, revealing the tug-and-pull of the particular in Lax's life.\" -American Catholic Studies \"McGregor, who discovered Lax after reading Merton's classic book The Seven-Storey Mountain as a young man, subtitles his biography The Uncommon Life of Robert Lax. The poet, who spent most of his life living an austere, quiet life in Greece, latterly on the island of Patmos, regarded his dwelling place as 'like living in a church.'\" -The Catholic Herald \"[Pure Act] will help re-awaken your idealism.\" -Ron Rolheiser, OMI \"Pure Act is a homage, a love letter, an apologia for a curious poetics, and a well-considered story about an uncommon man and his very uncommon life. For us, it may prove something of a wake-up call as well.\" -- -Scott Cairns The Christian Century \"Pure Act is an admiring biography, one that is well-researched and written with affection...While Lax's strange life--McGregor calls it an \"uncommon\" life--will not cause readers to emulate it, it will provoke them to ponder what it is to be fully human. This is, of course, one of the principal functions of biography, needed now more than ever.\" -- -Dana Greene National Catholic Reporter\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePrologue: Going Back     1. A Mutual Wonder-field     2. Ends and Means      3. Portals to a Land of Dusk     4. The Cottage     5. Lo, the sun walks forth!     6. Suicide Notes     7. The Scream     8. Aquinas and the Circus Beckon     9. The Siren Call of Hollywood     10. On the Road with the Cristianis     11. Being a Presence in Postwar Marseilles     12. Entering the Lion's Mouth     13. Paris, Jubilee, and Kerouac     14. Inspiration in a Greek Diner     15. A New Poetics     16. \"Original Child Bomb\" and an Island Home     17. The Sorrow of the Sponge Diver     18. A Saint of the Avant-Garde     19. Alone in the World     20. A Galapagos of the Spirit     21. All Thoughts as They Come     22. The Flaw in the Ideal     23. Hell Hath No Fury     24. Finding a Common Language     25. Pure Act Becomes Pure Love     26. The Peacemaker's Handbook     Epilogue: The Singer and the Song     Notes     Bibliography     Index     Acknowledgments     Photographs follow page","brand":"Fordham University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49406148837719,"sku":"9780823276820","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780823276820.jpg?v=1730494696","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/pure-act-9780823276820","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}