{"product_id":"desperate-characters","title":"Desperate Characters","description":"Used paperback in Very Good condition. \u003cb\u003eOne of the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e' 25 Most Significant New York City Novels From the Last 100 Years\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \"A towering landmark of postwar Realism…A sustained work of prose so lucid and fine it seems less written than carved.\" —David Foster Wallace \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eOtto and Sophie Bentwood live in a changing neighborhood in Brooklyn. Their stainless-steel kitchen is newly installed, and their Mercedes is parked curbside. After Sophie is bitten on the hand while trying to feed a stray, perhaps rabies-infected cat, a series of small and ominous disasters begin to plague the Bentwoods' lives, revealing the fault lines and fractures in a marriage—and a society—wrenching itself apart.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFirst published in 1970 to wide acclaim, \u003ci\u003eDesperate Characters\u003c\/i\u003e stands as one of the most dazzling and rigorous examples of the storyteller's craft in postwar American literature — a novel that, according to Irving Howe, ranks with \"\u003ci\u003eBilly Budd, The Great Gatsby, Miss Lonelyhearts\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eSeize the Day\u003c\/i\u003e.\"\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Fox, Paula","offers":[{"title":"Very Good","offer_id":52728544395547,"sku":"mon0000796079","price":8.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0958\/4004\/3291\/files\/content_bfd40944-1bf2-4b74-997a-0080617e61f4.jpg?v=1785884915","url":"https:\/\/bookalley.com\/products\/desperate-characters","provider":"Book Alley","version":"1.0","type":"link"}