{"product_id":"9780393351101","title":"Desperate Characters","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"A towering landmark of postwar Realism. . . . A 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 stainless-steel kitchen is newly installed, and their Mercedes is parked curbside. After Sophie is bitten on the hand while trying to feed a stray, perhaps rabies-infected cat, a series of small and ominous disasters begin to plague the Bentwoods' lives, revealing the fault lines and fractures in a marriage—and a society—wrenching itself apart.First published in 1970 to wide acclaim, Desperate Characters stands as one of the most dazzling and rigorous examples of the storyteller's 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":"Norton, W. W. \u0026 Company, Inc.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47016508588272,"sku":"9780393351101","price":14.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780393351101_p0.jpg?v=1763697400","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780393351101","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}