{"title":"Brock Clarke","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"arsonist-s-guide-to-writers-homes-in-new-england-book-brock-clarke-9780099532965","title":"An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England","description":"He went to college, found love, got married, fathered two children, and made a new start - and then watched in almost-silent awe as the vengeful past caught up with him, right at his own front door.  As, one by one, the homes of other famous New England writers are torched, Sam knows that this time he is most certainly not guilty.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49610370253073,"sku":"GOR002635043","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":53006346158353,"sku":"CIN0099532964G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0099532964.jpg?v=1751355761"},{"product_id":"ordinary-white-boy-book-brock-clarke-9780151008100","title":"The Ordinary White Boy","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49648182886673,"sku":"GOR003981038","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50345083437329,"sku":"CIN0151008108G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50986352476433,"sku":"CIN0151008108A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51330560393489,"sku":"CIN0151008108VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0151008108.jpg?v=1751004879"},{"product_id":"ordinary-white-boy-book-brock-clarke-9780156027090","title":"The Ordinary White Boy","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49650441519377,"sku":"GOR006756776","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0156027097.jpg?v=1750940623"},{"product_id":"exley-book-brock-clarke-9781616200848","title":"Exley","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e\"The literary equivalent of a half-court shot . . . Extraordinary.\"--NPR\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e For young Miller Le Ray, life has become a search. A search for his dad, who may or may not have joined the army and gone to Iraq. A search for a notorious (and, unfortunately, deceased) writer, Frederick Exley, author of the \"fictional memoir\" \u003ci\u003eA Fan's Notes\u003c\/i\u003e, who may hold the key to bringing Miller's father back. But most of all, his is a search for truth. As Miller says, \"Sometimes you have to tell the truth about some of the stuff you've done so that people will believe you when you tell them the truth about other stuff you haven't done.\"\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e In \u003ci\u003eExley\u003c\/i\u003e as in his previous bestselling novel, \u003ci\u003eAn Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England\u003c\/i\u003e, Brock Clarke takes his reader into a world that is both familiar and disorienting, thought-provoking and thoroughly entertaining. Told by Miller and Dr. Pahnee, both unreliable narrators, it becomes an exploration of the difference between what we believe to be real and what is in fact real.\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49654830137617,"sku":"GOR013602478","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49660414361873,"sku":"GOR013691846","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49910847602961,"sku":"CIN1616200847G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1616200847.jpg?v=1751453134"},{"product_id":"an-arsonist-s-guide-to-writers-homes-in-new-england-cd-9781415944479","title":"An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England","description":"These fun and engaging activity pages provide practice with a purpose  Completing each four-page activity helps students build skills in vocabulary, grammar, spelling, reading comprehension and fluency, handwriting, place value, computation, logic and critical thinking, solving word problems, interpreting data, and more. A great way to reinforce key academic skills, prepare children for standardized tests, and meet Common Core State Standards. For use with Grade 5.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49797980782865,"sku":"CIN1415944474G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50380687540497,"sku":"CIN1415944474VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1415944474.jpg?v=1750986943"},{"product_id":"arsonist-s-guide-to-writers-homes-in-new-england-book-brock-clarke-9781565126145","title":"An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e\"Funny, profound . . . a seductive book with a payoff on every page.\"--\u003ci\u003ePeople\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e A lot of remarkable things have happened in the life of Sam Pulsifer, the hapless hero of this incendiary novel, beginning with the ten years he spent in prison for accidentally burning down Emily Dickinson's house and unwittingly killing two people. emerging at age twenty-eight, he creates a new life and identity as a husband and father. But when the homes of other famous New England writers suddenly go up in smoke, he must prove his innocence by uncovering the identity of this literary-minded arsonist.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e In the league of such contemporary classics as \u003ci\u003eA Confederacy of Dunces\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe World According to Garp\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eAn Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England\u003c\/i\u003e is an utterly original story about truth and honesty, life and the imagination.\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49864720843025,"sku":"CIN1565126149G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50194359648529,"sku":"GOR012187957","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50334961303825,"sku":"CIN1565126149VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50391604986129,"sku":"CIN1565126149A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51037773529361,"sku":"NIN9781565126145","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53498024788241,"sku":"GOR014947104","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1565126149.jpg?v=1750959549"},{"product_id":"the-happiest-people-in-the-world-cd-9781622315123","title":"The Happiest People in the World","description":"The absurdity and distortion of reality that made Brock Clarke s previous two novels so outrageously funny and yet so moving are on full display in his newest offering, The Happiest People in the World. Adapting the format of the political thriller and subverting it to tell his story of innocence corrupted, Clarke has delivered a biting and controversial satire on the American obsession with security and the conspiracies that threaten it.The Happiest People in the World is a spy novel like no other spy novel. It s also a send-up of American culture, and in particular the constant pursuit of individual happiness of the kind that is attainable only at the expense of others. In exploring the contradictions and pitfalls of our national obsession with both freedom and security, the novel shows us how we constantly subvert our own good intentions as husbands and wives, as children and parents, as students and teachers, as believers in art and believers in God, as citizens of America and citizens of the world.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49939607978257,"sku":"CIN162231512XVG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/162231512X.jpg?v=1751152018"},{"product_id":"arsonist-s-guide-to-writers-homes-in-new-england-book-brock-clarke-9781565125513","title":"An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England","description":"Sam Pulsifer, the hapless hero of this incendiary novel has come to the end of a very long and unusual journey, and for the second time in is life he has the time to think about all the things that have and have not come to pass. \u003cbr\u003e The truth is, a lot of remarkable things have happened in Sam's life. He spent ten years in prison for accidentally burning down poet Emily Dickinson's house--and unwittingly killing two people in the process. He emerged at age twenty-eight and set about creating a new life--almost a new identity--for himself. He went to college, found love, got married, fathered two children, and made a new start--and then watched in almost silent awe as the vengeful past caught up with him, right at his own front door. \u003cbr\u003e As, one by one, the homes of other famous New England writers are torched, Sam knows that he is most certainly not the guilty one. To prove his innocence, he sets out to uncover the identity of this literary-minded arsonist. What he discovers, and how he deals with the reality of his discoveries, is both hilariously funny and heartbreakingly sad. For, as Sam learns, the truth has a way of eluding capture, and then, when you finally get close enough to embrace it, it turns and kicks you in the ass. \u003cbr\u003e In the league of such contemporary classics as A Confederacy of Dunces, Catch-22, Little Big Man, and The World According to Garp, An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England is an original and exciting work - a novel disguised as a memoir; a mystery that cloaks itself in humor; an artful piece of literature that bites the hand that breeds it. A heartbreaking story about truth and honesty and the damage they do, it's above all a massive piece of entertainment that will make you think and make you care.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50043187101969,"sku":"CIN1565125517G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51417352306961,"sku":"CIN1565125517VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51578594525457,"sku":"GOR003301182","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53507475505425,"sku":"GOR014951489","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1565125517.jpg?v=1750959547"},{"product_id":"who-are-you-calvin-bledsoe-book-brock-clarke-9781643750781","title":"Who Are You, Calvin Bledsoe?","description":"With the comic unpredictability of a Wes Anderson movie and the inventive sharpness of a John Irving novel, author Brock Clarke introduces listeners to an ordinary man who is about to embark on an absurdly extraordinary adventure. After his mother, a theologian and bestselling author, dies in a fiery explosion, forty-nine-year-old Calvin Bledsoe's heretofore uninspired life is upended. A stranger shows up at the funeral, claiming to be Calvin's aunt Beatrice, and insists that Calvin accompany her on a trip to Europe, immediately. As he and Beatrice traverse the continent, it quickly becomes apparent that his aunt's clandestine behavior is leading him into danger. Facing a comic menagerie of antiquities thieves, secret agents, religious fanatics, and an ex-wife who's stalking him, Calvin begins to suspect there might be some meaning behind the madness. Maybe he's not the person he thought he was? Perhaps no one is who they appear to be? But there's little time for soul-searching, as Calvin first has to figure out why he has been kidnapped, why his aunt disappeared, and who the hell burned down his house. Powered by pitch-perfect dialogue, lovable characters, and surprising optimism, Who Are You, Calvin Bledsoe? is a modern-day Travels with My Aunt, a novel about grabbing life, and holding on-wherever it may take you.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50387974816017,"sku":"CIN164375078XG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/164375078X.jpg?v=1750992296"},{"product_id":"happiest-people-in-the-world-book-brock-clarke-9781616204792","title":"The Happiest People in the World","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e\"[A] dark and funny satire . . . Infidelities, secret identities and double-crosses . . . Reflects the absurdity of any country obsessed with spying on its own people.\" --\u003ci\u003eThe Wall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Take the format of a spy thriller, shape it around real-life incidents involving international terrorism, leaven it with dark, dry humor, toss in a love rectangle, give everybody a gun, and let everything play out in the outer reaches of upstate New York--there you have an idea of Brock Clarke's new novel. Filled with wonder and anger in almost equal parts,\u003ci\u003eThe Happiest People in the World\u003c\/i\u003e is a ripped-from-the-headlines tale of paranoia and the all-American obsession with security and the conspiracies that threaten it.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \"A literary first: a book that feels like the love child of Saul Bellow and \u003ci\u003eHogan's Heroes,\u003c\/i\u003e full of authorial cartwheels of comedy and profundity.\" --\u003ci\u003eGQ\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \"\u003ci\u003eThe Happiest People in the World\u003c\/i\u003e begins with a raucous bar scene featuring party streamers, smoke, prone bodies, spilled fluids and a stuffed moose with a surveillance camera in its left eye . . . [Clarke has] success in dreaming up oddball originals that have instant appeal.\" --Janet Maslin, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \"[Clarke] creates books that taste like delicious cuts of absurdity marbled with erudition.\" --\u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \"A whiz-bang spy satire bundled in an edgy tale of redemption . . . His comedy of errors is impossible to put down.\" --\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly,\u003c\/i\u003e starred review\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \"A darkly hilarious novel . . . The writing is clever, the dialogue snappy and understated, and the effect is as pleasantly unsettling as anything Kurt Vonnegut Jr. ever wrote.\" --\u003ci\u003eThe Portland Sun\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \"A zany and fast-paced book that explores the myriad ways people of all nations make themselves and others unhappy.\" --\u003ci\u003eChicago Tribune,\u003c\/i\u003e Printer's Row\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \"Ranks among the funniest and most relevant social satires I've read . . . It might just make you the happiest reader in the world.\" --\u003ci\u003eThe Dallas Morning News\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50395738702097,"sku":"CIN1616204796G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50405617991953,"sku":"CIN1616204796VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53392725213457,"sku":"GOR014896791","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1616204796.jpg?v=1751213742"},{"product_id":"price-of-the-haircut-book-brock-clarke-9781616208172","title":"The Price of the Haircut","description":"\u003cdiv\u003eFrom an acclaimed and original writer comes a new collection of stories bursting with absurdist plot twists and laced with trenchant wit. Brock Clarke, author of \u003ci\u003eAn Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eExley\u003c\/i\u003e, among other novels, now offers up bite-sized morsels of his trademark social satire that will have readers laughing, and perhaps shifting uncomfortably in their seats.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e The title story delivers a cringingly biting dissection of racial attitudes in contemporary America, and Clarke also turns his eagle eye to subjects like PTSD, the fate of child actors, and, most especially, marital discord in stories like \"Considering Lizzie Borden, Her Axe, My Wife\" and \"The Misunderstandings.\" In \"The Pity Palace,\" a masterful study in self-absorption and self-delusion, a reclusive husband in Florence, Italy, who believes his wife has left him for a famous novelist, sells tickets to tourists anxious to meet someone more miserable than they.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e It's a distinctly Clarkean world, in which readers find themselves reflected back with the distortion of funhouse mirrors--and swept up on a wild ride of heart-wrenching insight and self-discovery.\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50395926823185,"sku":"CIN1616208171G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52466961252625,"sku":"CIN1616208171VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":53460225818897,"sku":"CIN1616208171A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1616208171.jpg?v=1751088831"},{"product_id":"what-we-won-t-do-book-brock-clarke-9781889330679","title":"What We Won't Do","description":"Welcome to the strange, wonderful world of Brock Clarke. Nestled in-between the green mountains of the Adirondacks and hazardous fiberglass plants, this amusement park of stories will never cease to amaze you. Here, you will meet lower-middle class, middle-aged Americans who are growing old, but not gracefully, wearing baseball hats and jeans slung low and desperately faking youth and their teenagers, so restless and bored that they waste their youth away drinking Utica beer and accidentally setting fires all over town. Here, florists, dental hygienists, high school teachers, and peddlers of porno novelty items alike are all caught somewhere between the idealism of Epcot Center and the realities of Little Falls, NY. They are trying to be normal, good people at all costs and are, again and again, failing miserably. In the title story, What We Wont Do,  false accusations made by an unemployed man toward his doctor acquaintance turns an innocent barbecue . . . into something youd see in a professional wrestling steel cage match. The similarly ridiculous and tragic Starving features a group of fathers who decide to literally starve themselves to death rather than watch their sons self destructive and self-pitying midlife crisis, and in Specify the Learners,  a man quits his factory job, gets divorced, and, attributing everything to the fact that he failed sixth grade back in 1977, goes back to junior high. Reaffirming that life, at its core, is embarrassing,  What We Wont Do is a collection of tale  about the miseries of the average, blue-collar worker who is anything but average. Compassionate and humorous, these stories portray the Homer Simpsons and Archie Bunkers of the world,Knut Hamsun style. Clarkes understanding of all of our accidental evil, rank insecurity, and plain human weakness is more than insightful; its downright funny.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50402232172817,"sku":"CIN1889330671VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51055214657809,"sku":"NIN9781889330679","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51423714148625,"sku":"CIN1889330671G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52486388875537,"sku":"NLS9781889330679","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1889330671.jpg?v=1751380091"},{"product_id":"i-grape-or-the-case-for-fiction-essays-book-brock-clarke-9781946724366","title":"I, Grape; or The Case for Fiction - Essays","description":"In fifteen sharply engaging essays, acclaimed novelist and short story writer Brock Clarke examines the art (and artifice) of fiction from unpredictable, entertaining, and often personal angles, positing through a slant scrutiny of place, voice, and syntax what fiction can—and can’t—do. (“Very: is there a weaker, sadder, more futile word in the English language?”)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Clarke supports his case with passages by and about writers who have both influenced and irritated him. Pieces such as “What the Cold Can Teach Us,” “The Case for Meanness,” “Why Good Literature Makes Us Bad People,” and “The Novel is Dead; Long Live the Novel” celebrate the achievements of master practitioners such as Muriel Spark, Joy Williams, Donald Barthelme, Flannery O’Connor, Paul Beatty, George Saunders, John Cheever, and Colson Whitehead. Of particular interest to Clarke is the contentious divide between fiction and memoir, which he investigates using recent and relevant critical arguments, also tackling ancillary forms such as “fictional memoir” and the autobiographical novel.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Anecdotal and unabashed, rigorous and piercingly perceptive—not to mention flat-out funny—\u003ci\u003eI\u003c\/i\u003e,\u003ci\u003e Grape\u003c\/i\u003e;\u003ci\u003e or The Case for Fiction \u003c\/i\u003eis a love letter to and a passionate defense of the discipline to which its author has devoted his life and mind. It is also an attempt to eff the ineffable: “That is one of the basic tenets of this book: when we write fiction, surprising things sometimes happen, especially when fiction writers take advantage of their chosen form’s contrarian ability to surprise.”","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50403086106897,"sku":"CIN194672436XA","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50403087221009,"sku":"CIN194672436XVG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51916890013969,"sku":"CIN194672436XG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/194672436X.jpg?v=1751093510"},{"product_id":"who-are-you-calvin-bledsoe-book-brock-clarke-9781616208219","title":"Who Are You, Calvin Bledsoe?","description":"With the comic unpredictability of a Wes Anderson movie and the inventive sharpness of a John Irving novel, author Brock Clarke introduces listeners to an ordinary man who is about to embark on an absurdly extraordinary adventure. After his mother, a theologian and bestselling author, dies in a fiery explosion, forty-nine-year-old Calvin Bledsoe's heretofore uninspired life is upended. A stranger shows up at the funeral, claiming to be Calvin's aunt Beatrice, and insists that Calvin accompany her on a trip to Europe, immediately. As he and Beatrice traverse the continent, it quickly becomes apparent that his aunt's clandestine behavior is leading him into danger. Facing a comic menagerie of antiquities thieves, secret agents, religious fanatics, and an ex-wife who's stalking him, Calvin begins to suspect there might be some meaning behind the madness. Maybe he's not the person he thought he was? Perhaps no one is who they appear to be? But there's little time for soul-searching, as Calvin first has to figure out why he has been kidnapped, why his aunt disappeared, and who the hell burned down his house. 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A search for a notorious (and, unfortunately, deceased) writer, Frederick Exley, author of the fictional memoir \u003ci\u003eA Fan's Notes\u003c\/i\u003e, who may hold the key to bringing Miller's father back. But most of all, his is a search for truth. As Miller says, Sometimes you have to tell the truth about some of the stuff you've done so that people will believe you when you tell them the truth about other stuff you haven't done. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn\u003ci\u003e Exley\u003c\/i\u003e as in his previous bestselling novel, \u003ci\u003eAn Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England\u003c\/i\u003e, Brock Clarke takes his reader into a world that is both familiar and disorienting, thought-provoking and thoroughly entertaining. 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Theoretically, it's all the people who live in Denmark, the country that gave the world Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales and the open-face sandwich. But Denmark is also where some political cartoonists got into very unhappy trouble when they attempted to depict Muhammad in their drawings, which prompted protests, arson, and even assassination attempts. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Imagine, then, that one of those cartoonists, given protection through the CIA, is relocated to a small town in upstate New York where he is given a job as a high school guidance counselor. Once there, he manages to fall in love with the wife of the high school principal, who himself is trying to get over the effects of a misguided love affair with the very CIA agent who sent the cartoonist to him. 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In Special Election, ingenious fictions target our all-too-familiar preoccupations and vulnerabilities—belonging, (dis)engagement, the struggle for self-worth, the difficulty of loving and being loved, the banality and absurdity of existence. Brock Clarke’s rapier wit, inexhaustible imagination, and brilliant leaps of illogic transform his characters’ desperation and distress into tragicomic delight. In the title story, Lawrence Welk is ousted from heaven to run for governor in present-day North Dakota. In “One Goes Where One Is Needed,” we follow the former Provisional Coalition Administrator of post-liberation Iraq, now a youth ski instructor at Okemo Mountain in Vermont. In “The Slim Jim,” the protagonist finds himself (literally and figuratively) very slowly choking to death on a frozen microwavable burrito.   “There is something wrong with me,” states the narrator of “The Big Book of Useless Saturdays.” This could be said of all the characters in Special Election, and through loopy misdirection and mordant observation, Clarke devotes himself to showing his characters and his readers exactly what is wrong. Yet the sharpness of his attention and lavish ludicrousness of his storylines belie a sneaking affection for this imperfect, disappointing world filled with imperfect, disappointing humans. Though Clarke has been compared to such greats as Barthelme, Bellow, and Saunders, the nine stories in Special Election vibrate at a frequency all his own, showcasing the strengths of one of our most gifted comic writers.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51632837722385,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":51632837951761,"sku":"NGR9781946724922","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52511766151441,"sku":"NIN9781946724922","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":53723078754577,"sku":"CIN1946724920G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1946724920.jpg?v=1751093512"},{"product_id":"arsonist-s-guide-to-writers-homes-in-new-england-book-brock-clarke-9780434018413","title":"An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England","description":"Sam Pulsifer, the hapless hero of this incendiary novel, has come to the end of a very long and unusual journey. The truth is, a lot of remarkable things have happened in Sam's life. He spent ten years in prison for accidentally burning down poet Emily Dickinson's house - and unwittingly killing two people in the process. He emerged aged twenty-eight and set about creating a new life for himself. He went to college, found love, got married, fathered two children, and made a new start - and then watched in almost-silent awe as the vengeful past caught up with him, right at his own front door. As, one by one, the homes of other famous New England writers are torched, Sam knows that this time he is most certainly not guilty. To prove his innocence, he sets out to uncover the identity of this literary-minded arsonist. What he discovers, and how he deals with the reality of his discoveries, is both hilariously funny and heartbreakingly sad. For, as Sam learns, the truth has a way of eluding capture, and then, when you finally get close enough to embrace it, it turns and kicks you in the ass. An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England is a novel disguised as a memoir; a heartbreaking story about truth and honesty and the damage they do.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53436825829649,"sku":"GOR001789669","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780434018413.jpg?v=1776613418"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-gb\/collections\/author-books-by-brock-clarke.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}