{"product_id":"9780061869266","title":"Shoppers","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"Perfection is not the basis of what I'm talking about,\" says a member of the Cassandra family, which forms the center of Denis Johnson's plays, \u003cem\u003eHellhound on My Trail \u003c\/em\u003eand \u003cem\u003eShoppers Carried by Escalators Into the Flames\u003c\/em\u003e. The character could be speaking for his creator, because human imperfection is one of Denis Johnson's specialties -- in his critically acclaimed novels, short stories, and nonfiction, and, now, in two brilliant new plays.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThese two works present a dramatized field guide to some of the more dysfunctional and dysphoric inhabitants of the American West: a sexual-misconduct investigator who misconducts herself sexually; a renegade Jehovah's Witness who supports his splinter Jehovean group by dealing drugs; the Cassandra Brothers and their father and their grandmother, thrown together at a family reunion\/wedding\/melee at their shabby homestead in Ukiah, California.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhen \u003cem\u003eShoppers Carried by Escalators Into the Flames \u003c\/em\u003ewas performed in San Francisco in 2001, the \u003cem\u003eChronicle \u003c\/em\u003esaid, \"There's an enormous appeal in Johnson's bleak-comic vision of a semi-mythic American West.\" That appeal derives from the author's perfect vision of imperfection, embodied with such energy and courage in these marvelous pieces of theatre.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"HarperCollins","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47070152884464,"sku":"9780061869266","price":6.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780061869266_p0.jpg?v=1763623322","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780061869266","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}