{"product_id":"desperate-characters-9780393351101-new","title":"Desperate Characters","description":"\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":"W. W. Norton \u0026 Company","offers":[{"title":"New","offer_id":52444419522720,"sku":"9780393351101-new","price":14.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0463\/0115\/1392\/files\/51zKfNDi4lL.jpg?v=1746539159","url":"https:\/\/shop.mtwyouth.org\/products\/desperate-characters-9780393351101-new","provider":"More Than Words ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}