{"product_id":"desperate-characters","title":"Desperate Characters","description":"\u003cp\u003eOne of The Atlantics Great American NovelsOne of the New York Times 25 Most Significant New York City Novels From the Last 100 YearsA towering landmark of postwar RealismA sustained work of prose so lucid and fine it seems less written than carved. David Foster WallaceOtto and Sophie Bentwood live in a changing neighborhood in Brooklyn. Their stainlesssteel kitchen is newly installed, and their Mercedes is parked curbside. After Sophie is bitten on the hand while trying to feed a stray, perhaps rabiesinfected cat, a series of small and ominous disasters begin to plague the Bentwoods lives, revealing the fault lines and fractures in a marriageand a societywrenching itself apart.First published in 1970 to wide acclaim, Desperate Characters stands as one of the most dazzling and rigorous examples of the storytellers craft in postwar American literature  a novel that, according to Irving Howe, ranks with Billy Budd, The Great Gatsby, Miss Lonelyhearts, and Seize the Day.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"W. W. Norton \u0026 Company","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45899786092742,"sku":"DADAX0393351106","price":18.7,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0695\/9389\/1014\/files\/71G20-ECj8L.jpg?v=1780302361","url":"https:\/\/ergodemedia.com\/products\/desperate-characters","provider":"Ergodemedia","version":"1.0","type":"link"}