{"product_id":"2940015866414","title":"Mermaids","description":"\"Mrs. Flax was happiest when she was leaving a place, but I wanted to stay put long enough to fall down crazy and hear the Word of God. I always called my mother Mrs. Flax.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e   So begins this extraordinary first novel about one wild year in the life of fourteen-year-old Charlotte Flax, when she and her sister Kate move with Mrs. Flax into a sleepy 1960's Massachusetts town. Mrs. Flax is a woman who wears polka-dot dresses and serves hors d'oeuvres for dinner every night, and Kate is a child who basically wants to be a fish.\u003cbr\u003e      And then there's Charlotte, who in Patty Dann's hands, is transformed into a young woman of infinite whim and variety. Charlotte's main ambition in life is to become a saint, preferably martyred, though she's Jewish. She's smitten with the shy young caretaker at the convent at the top of the hill. Dann has created a young girl who accepts the unkindness of the mad universe in which she's whirling and takes it on with a savage glee.\u003cbr\u003e    Charlotte Flax is like no one you have ever met -- and someone you know very well.","brand":"Patty Dann","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47153115496688,"sku":"2940015866414","price":7.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940015866414_p0.jpg?v=1763625907","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940015866414","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}