BEATITUDE

A sensitive young writer and an outgoing poet are irresistibly drawn together by their shared fascination with Jack Kerouac and the Beat Generation.

Where does friendship end and love begin? What do you do when you find yourself falling for someone who can't fall for you? What do you each give up to keep the other in your life? New York City, 1995: Harry Charity is a loner haunted by a disastrous affair when he meets Jay Bishop, an outgoing artist, aspiring poet and former Marine. Like magnet to magnet, the two are drawn to each another, propelled by their shared fascination with the freewheeling lives of Jack Kerouac and the Beat Generation. But Jay's girlfriend, Zahra, senses there's more going on. What does Harry feel for Jay? And what does Jay feel for Harry? With no answers forthcoming, Zahra leaves for an extended holiday, as Harry and Jay, following in the footsteps of their Beat heroes, set off in search of thrills and truth. Inspired by their discovery of the legendary scroll manuscript of Kerouac's On the Road in the vaults of the New York Public Library, the two embark on a nicotine-and-caffeine-fueled journey into New York City's smoky jazz joints, dusty rare-book shops and thriving poetry scene of slams and open-mike nights. An encounter with "Howl" poet Allen Ginsberg shatters their notions of what it means to be Beat but ultimately and unexpectedly leads them into their own hearts, where they discover their true feelings for each another. Beatitude is about the sometimes thin line between platonic and romantic, past and present, legend and reality. It's about finding truths in everyday life, about expanding one's definition of love and, ultimately, about accepting love in whatever form it takes. Larry Closs is an interactive marketing executive, with a background in television. This is his debut novel.