{"product_id":"soda-lake-9781644284865","title":"Soda Lake","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eSoda Lake\u003c\/i\u003e opens with an unnamed narrator seeing a man disappear into a lake of white salt. This sets the narrator on a quest of discovery, shaped by a series of stories with interconnected characters who all grapple with threats to their identity. The narrator's suspenseful journey mixes personal and collective human history, and his definition of self mysteriously fades as he gets closer to the elusive and timeless \"McCuade,\" who may or may not be real.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eShifting from the coastal valley of central California to Chicago, Ireland, Greece, and France, each chapter in the novel presents a protagonist in the midst of a psychological struggle wherein the idea of McCuade becomes stronger than the reality of the characters themselves. With a twenty-first-century nod to works as diverse as Sherwood Anderson's \u003ci\u003eWinesburg, Ohio\u003c\/i\u003e and Renata Adler's \u003ci\u003eSpeedboat\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eSoda Lake\u003c\/i\u003e blends elements of the archetypal detective quest with stories of the uncanny in order to freshly render the individual human psyche in its struggle to stand up to a progressively transmogrifying world.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eHampsey, John C.:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - \u003cb\u003eJohn C Hampsey \u003c\/b\u003eis professor of Romantic and Classical Literature at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, where he has won the University Distinguished Teaching Award. Previously, he taught at Boston University and MIT. His previous books include the critically acclaimed \u003ci\u003eParanoia and Contentment: A Personal Essay on Western Thought\u003c\/i\u003e and his memoir, \u003ci\u003eKaufman's Hill\u003c\/i\u003e. During his career, Hampsey has had more than thirty stories and essays published in such places as \u003ci\u003eThe Gettysburg Review, The Midwest Quarterly, Antioch Review, The Alaska Quarterly, The Boston Globe, Arizona Quarterly, European Romantic Review, Witness, Colby Quarterly, The Chronicle of Higher Education\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eMcNeese Review\u003c\/i\u003e, among many others. He lives in San Luis Obispo, California.","brand":"Rare Bird Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51676258861330,"sku":"9781644284865","price":20.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_201e2b20-af27-4b88-9c86-a5cc38010880.jpg?v=1761050096","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/soda-lake-9781644284865","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}