{"product_id":"9780967368900","title":"The Annulment: A Novel of Ireland and Los Angeles","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eThe Annulment\u003c\/i\u003e, a faint cry of moral stubbornness curses a powerful   university sports culture built upon legal corruption, money and greed.   A   novel in the tradition of the postmodern gothic, \u003ci\u003eThe Annulment\u003c\/i\u003e is at once a   love story, a horror story and a deep investigation of that fiction   constructed for us called modern society.  \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOur hero, Tom Fergusson, is a writer living in Los Angeles.  Recently   divorced, Fergusson seeks an annulment through the Archdiocese of LA.  Late   one night a stranger leaves him a book belonging to a learned man in a   backwater of Europe. He tries to return the book to its owner but gets into   trouble: with the IRA in Belfast,  in Prague and finally by inadvertently   uncovering a cheating scandal at an L.A. university as ethnically   territorialized as the Balkans.  What he eventually learns about the book   and its owner profoundly affects his life.  Totally abandoned in his hours   of need by his several girlfriends, he is finally saved through the   interventions of a whore.  \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhere unity and equality are replaced by diversity and special treatment,   how easily the myth of the citizen comes to be a tool of oppression.    Horrific for its exploration of jealousy and treachery in the workplace   under the veil of law, \u003ci\u003eThe Annulment\u003c\/i\u003e portrays, in realistic steps, an easy   descent into a Hobbesian world of sexual betrayal and ethnic conflict: a war   of \"all against all.\"  \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Annulment is a picaresque gothic romance.  Its setting is the dark side   of college sports.  It is written by an author who has experienced it all   first hand: Christopher Thomas Cairney began as a wrestler at California   State University Chico and, following that, continued in college sports for   ten years as an advisor while teaching in both the Big Twelve and the   Pac-10.  He was the man closest to the players, their advocate and their   friend.  Based on a true story, \u003ci\u003eThe Annulment\u003c\/i\u003et is an experience: of horror   and betrayal, of ethnic strife and racial power within an American   Division-One sports program.  \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bjolanson Publishers","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47029327298800,"sku":"9780967368900","price":9.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780967368900_p0.jpg?v=1763872405","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780967368900","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}