{"product_id":"9780872867345","title":"Like a Dog","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA scrappy young skateboarder's story of underground worlds and fringe existences, confusing family relationships and the struggle for intimacy.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePraise for \u003cem\u003eLike a Dog:\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Tara Jepsen's \u003cem\u003eLike a Dog\u003c\/em\u003e is outrageously funny and soul-scrapingly grim, in the tradition of our most intrepid, shameless, and shame-filled comedians and storytellers. It also announces a singular new voice in American fiction—one which is deeply alive, hard-hitting, and tender.\"—\u003cstrong\u003eMaggie Nelson\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003e, \u003c\/em\u003eauthor of \u003cem\u003eThe Argonauts\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“This book beat the crap out of me. I am bruised and laughing. Thank you Tara Jepsen, may I have another?”—\u003cstrong\u003eDaniel Handler\u003c\/strong\u003e, author of \u003cem\u003eAll The Dirty Parts\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Tara Jepsen captures the absurd, animal humor of residing in a human female body on planet Earth like no other, and \u003cem\u003eLike a Dog\u003c\/em\u003e sets it loose within a hazy California underground of abandoned skate pools, weed farms and comedy open mics. Eccentric and insidery, taking on the bonds of family and addiction, the effort to find a life and the drive to end it, \u003cem\u003eLike a Dog\u003c\/em\u003e brims with hyper-conscious gems of hilarity and pathos.\"—\u003cstrong\u003eMichelle Tea\u003c\/strong\u003e, author of \u003cem\u003eBlack Wave\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA skateboarder in her early thirties, Paloma is aimlessly winging it through life. She takes low-paying jobs, drinks neon-colored wine coolers in the park, and drives to the Central Valley to skate the empty swimming pools dotting the sun-blasted landscape.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePaloma struggles to have a relationship with her brother Peter, whose opiate addiction makes that nearly impossible. Her own delusions about the nature of addiction help to keep the threat of Peter's death by overdose at a comfortable enough distance, and as he slides into a dangerous spiral, Paloma tries out the world of stand-up comedy, happier than she's ever been.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMore praise for \u003cem\u003eLike a Dog\u003c\/em\u003e:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Jepsen proves herself a master of fusing humor and tragedy as she takes us on a psychological road trip through California's suburban wastelands, its cities of hope, and rural cash crop operations, mixing no less than legal skateboarding adventures, fierce, quirky desire, and tragic loss into a powerful and familiar coming of age story.\"—\u003cstrong\u003eBeth Stephens\u003c\/strong\u003e, artist and filmmaker\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Tara's stories about sibling love, the struggle of drug addiction, and the bonding power of skateboard culture, will break reader’s hearts wide open. So detailed and real, it’s like being there. This book captures the gritty, feisty spirit of Sister Spit at its best.\"—\u003cstrong\u003eAnnie Sprinkle\u003c\/strong\u003e, author of \u003cem\u003eHardcore from the Heart\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Tara Jepsen’s blunt eloquence takes us deep into the difficulty of our desires, where the things we most want—intimacy, realness, safety, guarantees—are the things we are the least likely to get. In the desolate hardscapes and nowheres of California, north and south, she reveals how closeness can still be alienating: a brutal fact of her stark realism that brings both laughter and tears.\"—\u003cstrong\u003eKaren Tongson\u003c\/strong\u003e, author of \u003cem\u003eRelocations: Queer Suburban Imaginaries\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"How can this be Tara Jepsen's first book? Her inimitable voice has been a beloved part of the underground art scene for years—in comedy, performance, and personal essays. With her fiction debut, she turns all her pathos and humor on her protagonist Paloma as she explores the eternal pursuit for love and meaning among and between humans. Jepsen’s specialty is the off-kilter observation or indignant proclamation that hits you in the funny bone and then resonates with real soul. I loved this book. I’m ecstatic she could lasso her eccentric and significant cosmology and weave it into this beautiful story.\"—\u003cstrong\u003eBeth Lisick\u003c\/strong\u003e, author of \u003cem\u003eYokohama Threeway and Other Stories\u003c\/em\u003e, co-founder of the Porchlight Storytelling Series\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Tara Jepsen's protagonist is a frenetic pinball in a machine of hilarity, recklessness, and existential ennui. Mining the MTV generation's legacy of self-doubt, substance abuse, and unappeasable search for meaning, Jepsen excavates a queer feminist parable of survival that is simultaneously bombastic and completely peaceful at its core.\"\u003cstrong\u003e—Zackary Drucker\u003c\/strong\u003e, artist, producer for \u003cem\u003eTransparent\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"City Lights Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47032122015984,"sku":"9780872867345","price":15.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780872867345_p0.jpg?v=1763850817","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780872867345","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}