{"product_id":"9780957206137","title":"The Case","description":"The Case is John Fraser's latest fictional tour de force. It is a novel \u003cp\u003eabout loss - loss of memory, of love, of money, of friends. The \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eprotagonist searches throughout the book for a suitcase - maybe valuable in \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eitself, maybe because it represents resources and a destination. The Case \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003etakes us on a trip through the American dream, of wealth, cowboys and \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHollywood movies, and out the other side, to police shootouts, mortal danger \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eand revolution, on a quest for the missing case.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e'One of the most extraordinary publishing events of the past few years has \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ebeen the rapid, indeed insistent, appearance of the novels of John Fraser. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThere are few parallels in literary history to this almost simultaneous and \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003elargely belated appearance of a mature ouvre, sprung like Athena from Zeus's \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eforehead. And the novels in themselves are extraordinary. I can think of \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003enothing much like it in fiction. Fraser maintains a masterfully ironic \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003edistance from the extreme conditions in which his characters find \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ethemselves. There are strikingly beautiful descriptions, veiled allusions to \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003erooted traditions, unlikely events half-glimpsed, abrupted narratives, \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003esurreal but somehow apposite social customs. Like Thomas Pynchon, whom in \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003esome way he resembles, Fraser is a deep and serious fantasist, wildly \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003einventive. The reader rides as on a switchback or luge of impetuous \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eattention, with effects flashing by at virtuouso speeds. The characters seem \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eto be unwitting agents of chaos, however much wise reflection the author \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ebestows upon them. They move with shrugging self-assurance through \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ecircumstances as richly detailed and as without reliable compass-points as a \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChinese scroll.' (John Fuller, English poet, novelist, Booker Prize nominee \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eand Fellow Emeritus at Magdalen College, Oxford)\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Aesop Publications","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47020448219376,"sku":"9780957206137","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780957206137_p0.jpg?v=1763876167","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780957206137","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}