{"product_id":"down-time","title":"Down Time","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA terribly funny and lovably louche novel about five friends growing older, if not always up, from Andrew Martin, author of \u003ci\u003eEarly Work\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eCool for America\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWithout Cassandra, Aaron would probably be dead. Fortunately, she won't leave him--despite the drinking, flirting, solipsism, armchair socialism, overspending, infidelity, catastrophic depression, and disparate but increasingly frequent spells of drug- and booze-addled debauchery. Unfortunately, she might be reaching the end of her rope. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eCass and Aaron, like the other neurotic, ambivalent intellectuals in their orbit, are getting older. There's Malcolm, with his own alcoholism and marginally more successful writing career; his partner, Violet, a doctor with little patience for both; Antonia, a teaching fellow whose book about ecocide may get her tenure at a prestigious university near Harvard Square--yes, that one. When Sam, a charming trust-fund punk at the center of this loose network, dies suddenly, and a global pandemic takes hold, all five must contend with the lives they've made: their desires and disappointments, habits and hang-ups, pathologies and addictions, and the possibilities of making art and being good as the earth whirls to its end. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eDown Time \u003c\/i\u003emarks the delightful return of Andrew Martin, the author of the pitch-perfect slacker classics \u003ci\u003eEarly Work \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eCool for America\u003c\/i\u003e. Compulsively readable and contagiously intelligent, this is a wryly comic social novel of settling down, selling out, growing up, and getting out that turns a terribly funny and hyper-literate eye on our most desperately guarded ambitions: to love and be loved, to know and be known, to stay sane, if only just.","brand":"Andrew Martin","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52025372639533,"sku":"BS-8XD-617066","price":28.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0938\/3185\/6429\/files\/9780374617066-HD.jpg?v=1777302917","url":"https:\/\/ishookbooks.com\/products\/down-time","provider":"iShook Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}