{"product_id":"9781623096717","title":"The Veranda","description":"The Paris I knew was the most heterosexual city imaginable. It was a kind of forced indoctrination into boy-girl coupling, with people draped all over each other everywhere you went. I had no idea how to find a respectable lesbian community, or any kind of community for that matter. So, in spite of my horror of American crassness, I kept loneliness at bay by hanging out in cafes with other American students, making one coffee last an afternoon and smoking cheap Gauloises. It was a puzzle, how to make French friends.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI also dated men. It was distasteful, and unfair to both them and me. The first year I fell into a liaison with Jean-Pierre, a friend of my French hostess. He was much older and had a good job and enough money to take me to nice restaurants. I hated the sex, and I’m ashamed to admit that I stayed with Jean-Pierre because it was the only way I knew to experience Europe from the inside.","brand":"BookBaby","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47184566583536,"sku":"9781623096717","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781623096717_p0.jpg?v=1763866228","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781623096717","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}