{"product_id":"9780811232005","title":"Kick the Latch","description":"About one woman’s fine, hard life at the racetrack, \u003cem\u003eKick the Latch\u003c\/em\u003e–with its ruthless concision and artful mysteries–is lightning in a bottle Kathryn Scanlan’s \u003cem\u003eKick the Latch\u003c\/em\u003e vividly captures the arc of one woman’s life at the racetrack—the flat land and ramshackle backstretch; the bad feelings and friction; the winner’s circle and the racetrack bar; the fancy suits and fancy boots; and the “particular language” of “grooms, jockeys, trainers, racing secretaries, stewards, pony people, hotwalkers, everybody”—with economy and integrity. \u003cp\u003eBased on transcribed interviews with Sonia, a horse trainer, the novel investigates form and authenticity in a feat of synthesis reminiscent of Charles Reznikoff’s \u003cem\u003eTestimony\u003c\/em\u003e. As Scanlan puts it, “I wanted to preserve—amplify, exaggerate—Sonia’s idiosyncratic speech, her bluntness, her flair as a storyteller. I arrived at what you could call a composite portrait of a self.” Whittled down with a fiercely singular artistry, \u003cem\u003eKick the Latch\u003c\/em\u003e bangs out of the starting gate and carries the reader on a careening joyride around the inside track.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"New Directions Publishing Corporation","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47064067571952,"sku":"9780811232005","price":17.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780811232005_p0.jpg?v=1763747438","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780811232005","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}