{"product_id":"9780822202615","title":"Curse of the Starving Class","description":"The setting is a farmhouse somewhere in the American West, inhabited by a family who have enough to eat, but not enough more to satisfy the other hungers that bedevil them. The father is a drunk; the mother a frowzy slattern; the daughter precocious beyond her years; and the son a deranged idealist who wants something better but has no clear idea of how to attain it. The action is filled with changes and counter-changes as the family decides to sell the house to raise money; the mother talks of running off to Europe or Mexico but ends up asleep on the kitchen table; the father sobers up and tries to take control; the daughter is blown up in the family car; and the son is brutalized and bloodied by the evil forces besetting them. In the end of the play its people become a metaphor for the underside of American life—the benighted innocents forever pursuing a diminished dream and the illusion of fulfillment that remains ever beyond their reach.  ","brand":"Dramatists Play Service, Incorporated","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47011958948080,"sku":"9780822202615","price":9.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780822202615_p0.jpg?v=1763756080","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780822202615","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}