{"product_id":"9781941681701","title":"Clean Time: the True Story of Ronald Reagan Middleton","description":"\u003cp\u003e“Ben Gwin writes like F. Scott Fitzgerald high on meth and \u003ci\u003eClean Time\u003c\/i\u003e is \u003ci\u003eThe Great Gatsby \u003c\/i\u003efor a generation that thinks fame is the answer to every question.”–Lori Jakiela, \u003ci\u003ePortrait of the Artist as a Bingo Worker\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“\u003ci\u003eClean Time\u003c\/i\u003e is a prescient mash-up of the heartland opioid crisis, violent backwoods populism, and the hallucinatory, celebrity-obsessed world of reality television… a nightmarish dispatch from America in the age of Donald Trump.”\u003cb\u003e–\u003c\/b\u003eDerek Green, \u003ci\u003eNew World Order\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFramed as the drug-addled memoir of addict-turned-reality TV star Ronald Reagan Middleton (annotated and published by floundering doctoral candidate Harold Swanger), \u003ci\u003eClean Time\u003c\/i\u003e is a darkly comic satire set in a near-future America ravaged by addiction.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBeginning with journals written in jail, Ronald Reagan recounts his days in Booth, North Carolina, where he had a semblance of peace, a job manually distressing designer jeans, and a girlfriend with a lucrative drug dealing operation. After his inevitable arrest, Ronald Reagan’s parents send him to a North Jersey rehab center, which doubles as the set of The Recovery Channel’s reality TV show, \u003ci\u003eClean Time. \u003c\/i\u003eHere, Ronald Reagan is prescribed Nedvedol, a new drug engineered to end all addiction. His viewer ratings spike as he interacts with fellow addicts and meets a new love interest, quickly achieving celebrity status. Though he seems happy performing for the cameras, his journals tell a different story. He’s become dependent on Nedvedol and can think of only one thing: escape.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChased from rehab back to his squalid life in Booth by a salacious TV producer, a relapsing counselor, and a serial killer who targets addicts, Ronald Reagan struggles to stay clean while continuing to hit new bottoms.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs Ronald Reagan’s life spirals out of control, Harold Swanger’s narrative interruptions become more frequent, his endnotes increasingly dubious. In a poor attempt at academic notoriety, Swanger presents Ronald Reagan not as a troubled, lost, and obnoxiously privileged drug addict, but as a new kind of American hero.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn this sprawling and ambitious debut novel, Ben Gwin masterfully balances farce and irony with a genuine compassion for the large cast of characters that fumble through a nightmarish and all-too-familiar version of America.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Burrow Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47052172886256,"sku":"9781941681701","price":17.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781941681701_p0.jpg?v=1763754682","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781941681701","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}