{"product_id":"music-for-torching-9780688177621","title":"Music for Torching","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA tour de force: A. M. Homes's unforgettable New Yorker story unfolds into a fiercely entertaining novel of marriage, family, and the American dream.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn a tale that unfolds over the course of one week at the beginning of summer, A. M. Homes lays bare the foundations of marriage and family life at the end of the century--the American Dream gone dry. Flash frozen in the anxious entropy of suburban subdivision, Paul and Elaine (the couple featured in Homes's acclaimed first collection of stories, \u003cem\u003e The Safety of Objects\u003c\/em\u003e) have two boys and are obsessed with \"making things good again.\" Alone--together--they spin the quiet terrors of family life into a fantastical frenzy that careens out of control: a Stepford-wife neighbor, an ill-conceived plan for a tattoo, a sexy town cop who shows up at all the wrong moments, an allergy-relief cleanup team in space suits, a hoard of contractors and repairmen, a mistress calling on the cell phone, and a hostage situation at the boys' school. With characters so flawed and outrageous they are entirely believable, \u003cem\u003eMusic for Torching\u003c\/em\u003e is a surreal vision of a most familiar landscape.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eHomes, A. M.:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - A.M. Homes is the author of the novels \u003cem\u003eThe End of Alice, In a Country of Mothers, \u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eJack, \u003c\/em\u003eas well as the short-story collection \u003cem\u003eThe Safety of Objects\u003c\/em\u003e and the artist's book \u003cem\u003eAppendix A.\u003c\/em\u003e Her fiction has been translated into eight languages, and she is the recipient of numerous awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and a National endowment for the Arts Fellowship. Her fiction and nonfiction appear in magazines such as \u003cem\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eArtforum, \u003c\/em\u003e among others, and she is a contributing editor at \u003cem\u003eVanity Fair, Mirabella, Bomb, Blind Spot, \u003c\/em\u003eand \u003cem\u003eStory.\u003c\/em\u003e She teaches in the writing programs at Columbia University and The New School and lives in New York City.","brand":"Harper Perennial","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50460714336530,"sku":"9780688177621","price":13.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_6ce54949-95b5-4732-a18d-2b2125ac9550.jpg?v=1730046018","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/music-for-torching-9780688177621","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}