{"product_id":"american-pop-9780062697752","title":"American Pop","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAN NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"Mr. Wright's imagined history of the rise and fall of the sugary drink empire is so robust and recognizable that you might feel nostalgic for the taste of a soda you've never had.\" - Sam Sacks, \u003cem\u003eThe\u003c\/em\u003e \u003cem\u003eWall Street Journal\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNAMED A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK BY \u003cem\u003eParade - Cosmopolitan - Town \u0026amp; Country\u003c\/em\u003e \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003e-\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e \u003cem\u003eAARP - InStyle - Garden \u0026amp; Gun - Vol. 1 Brooklyn\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe story of a family.\u003cbr\u003eThe story of an empire. \u003cbr\u003eThe story of a nation.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMoving from Mississippi to Paris to New York and back again, a saga of family, ambition, passion, and tragedy that brings to life one unforgettable Southern dynasty--the Forsters, founders of the world's first major soft-drink company--against the backdrop of more than a century of American cultural history. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe child of immigrants, Houghton Forster has always wanted more--from his time as a young boy in Mississippi, working twelve-hour days at his father's drugstore; to the moment he first laid eyes on his future wife, Annabelle Teague, a true Southern belle of aristocratic lineage; to his invention of the delicious fizzy drink that would transform him from tiller boy into the founder of an empire, the Panola Cola Company, and entice a youthful, enterprising nation entering a hopeful new age.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNow the heads of a preeminent American family spoken about in the same breath as the Hearsts and the Rockefellers, Houghton and Annabelle raise their four children with the expectation they'll one day become world leaders. The burden of greatness falls early on eldest son Montgomery, a handsome and successful politician who has never recovered from the horrors and heartbreak of the Great War. His younger siblings Ramsey and Lance, known as the \"infernal twins,\" are rivals not only in wit and beauty, but in their utter carelessness with the lives and hearts of others. Their brother Harold, as gentle and caring as the twins can be cruel, is slowed by a mental disability--and later generations seem equally plagued by misfortune, forcing Houghton to seriously consider who should control the company after he's gone.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAn irresistible tour de force of original storytelling, \u003cem\u003eAmerican Pop\u003c\/em\u003e blends fact and fiction, the mundane and the mythical, and utilizes techniques of historical reportage to capture how, in Nathaniel Hawthorne's words, \"families are always rising and falling in America,\" and to explore the many ways in which nostalgia can manipulate cultural memory--and the stories we choose to tell about ourselves.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eWright, Snowden:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - \u003cp\u003eBorn and raised in Mississippi, Snowden Wright has a B.A. from Dartmouth College and an M.F.A. from Columbia University. He has written for \u003cem\u003eThe Atlantic, \u003c\/em\u003e \u003cem\u003eSalon, Esquire, \u003c\/em\u003ethe Millions, and the \u003cem\u003eNew York Daily News, \u003c\/em\u003e among other publications, and he previously worked as a fiction reader for \u003cem\u003eThe New Yorker, Esquire, \u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eThe Paris Review\u003c\/em\u003e. Wright's small-press debut, \u003cem\u003ePlay Pretty Blues, \u003c\/em\u003e was the recipient of the 2012 Summer Literary Seminar's Graywolf Prize. He currently lives in Atlanta, Georgia.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"William Morrow \u0026 Company","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50318009827602,"sku":"9780062697752","price":12.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_494cb1f7-4ff3-4e52-ba4b-eca0a980cfde.jpg?v=1727545161","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/american-pop-9780062697752","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}