{"product_id":"great-wide-open-book-douglas-kennedy-9780091953737","title":"The Great Wide Open","description":"‘[Kennedy] possesses a Hitchcockian approach to this narrative hub; tension and twists are administered in equal measure . . . The ordinary becomes, through his careful plotting, extraordinary.’ - Independent on Sunday  “All families are secret societies. Realms of intrigue and internal warfare, governed by their own rules . . .”  It’s 1980s New York. Heady, excessive times. Alice Burns - a young book editor - is deep into a manuscript about the morass of family life. The observations resonates, perhaps because she has just watched her own family implode.  As she reads she wonders: When did the sadness start? And could it be that unhappiness is a choice?  Thus begins a great American epic which follows Alice as she navigates high school bullying, first love and sexism at an elite college, a spell in 1970's Ireland, and a tragedy that sends her stateside as the US embraces a cowboy actor named Reagan. But it is also the tale of her endlessly complex parents and brothers; how their destinies are written by the lies they tell themselves and others.   The Great Wide Open is an immensely ambitious and compulsive saga; a novel which will speak volumes to anyone who has marvelled at that pain that can only be caused by family itself.  ‘In his fast-paced, engrossing novels Douglas Kennedy always has his brilliant finger on the entertaining parts of human sorrow, fury, and narrow escapes.’ - Lorrie Moore  ‘Kennedy's skill is to send you racing down the slope of sheer story.’ - Esquire","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49535041831185,"sku":"GOR009714241","price":10.69,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49543735902481,"sku":"GOR010037019","price":10.69,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0091953731.jpg?v=1751132641","url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/products\/great-wide-open-book-douglas-kennedy-9780091953737","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}