{"product_id":"two-way-traffic-9798218223137","title":"Two-Way Traffic","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst-ever paperback edition of Joel Lieber's posthumously-published 1972 semi-autobiographical novel \u003cem\u003eTwo-Way Traffic\u003c\/em\u003e. Set in the late 1960s and early 1970s and presented as a series of journal extracts, it is the harrowing portrayal of a young, successful writer's efforts to reassemble a life shattered by marital problems, a bitter custody battle, depression, anxiety, and a suicide attempt. The novel is a barely fictionalized account of the author's last two years and is a frank, often heartbreaking work, but not without brilliant flashes of humor, genuine warmth, and optimism.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFrom the dust jacket of the 1972 edition: \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJessie Jacobi had built a successful life as a writer: well-received books, attractive wife, two children. Then it all began to crumble. His marriage collapsed. His writing lost its unity and direction. A decision, any decision, became all but impossible.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"In the second year of my third decade, someone else has come to live inside me, and I hate that visitor,\" he writes in one of the journals that make up this novel. Beginning with Jesse's collapse, the journals record his often indecisive struggle with that unwelcome visitor-through a suicide attempt and the subsequent search for new friends, new beliefs, and a new understanding of himself.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJoel Lieber has written a frank and penetrating novel, an intensely personal chronicle of one man's journey into the depths of his own mind.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Tough Poets Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50399150407954,"sku":"9798218223137","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_49ea2ecd-9e8d-4ac7-a0e9-ee2aa20a11e9.jpg?v=1729089211","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/two-way-traffic-9798218223137","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}