This is the sequel to 39 Blows on a Gone Trumpet. After the passion of energies described in 39 Blows, Dolphin explores the world of underlying meaning, the patterns behind the facade of cultures and the new forms emerging in synchronicity around the globe. In a series of episodes, he takes us to the Magic Room in Tangiers, to the Tombs of Knowledge in Egypt and Asia and into the cruel realities of Vietnam, returning to the Real Cafe in New York. It is now the ’60s and the hero’s return coincides with the start of the ‘counter-revolution’ in the USA for which his journeys have prepared him.
Woven into the novel, like its precursor 39 Blows, is the passionate literature of the ages: from Mayakovsky’s ardor to Blake’s ecstatic wrath; from the eloquence of Whitman to the density of Joyce; from the ‘cut-up’ technique of Burroughs to the terse and exact poetry of Brecht; and the love of the unknown that stretches from Khayyam to Baudelaire. Cover illustration by Ralph Steadman.
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Why this book matters
- The second volume of Johnny Dolphin’s Trilogy — a deeper, more searching journey into the patterns beneath the surface of cultures and history
- Travels from the Magic Room in Tangiers to the Tombs of Knowledge in Egypt, Vietnam’s brutal realities, and the birth of the American counter-revolution
- Woven through with the great literary voices of the ages — Blake, Whitman, Joyce, Burroughs, Brecht, Khayyam, Baudelaire
- Cover illustration by Ralph Steadman — one of the most distinctive visual artists of the 20th century
- A bridge between the raw energy of 39 Blows and the cultural revolution at the heart of Liberated Space
