{"product_id":"9781733258531","title":"The Papaya King","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"An eccentric outsider is baffled by contemporary Manhattan in this engrossing second novel ... another entrancing, deeply memorable offering from Pelzman.\" -\u003cem\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\"How could anyone who has ever spent time in Manhattan resist taking a peek at a book with this title? Happily, \u003cem\u003eThe Papaya King\u003c\/em\u003e bears more than a passing resemblance to one of my favorite novels of all time, John Kennedy Toole's \u003cem\u003eA Confederacy of Dunces\u003c\/em\u003e ... I turned these pages fast ...\" -Bethanne Patrick, \u003cem\u003eLiterary Hub\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBobby Walser's tragic childhood has left him a man frozen in time and mired in a world of his own making-one that has little in common with reality. Genteel and old-fashioned, his manners and habits are more suited to an aristocrat from a Chekhov play than to a young man on Manhattan's Upper West Side.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHaunted by his failure to live up to the legacy of his great father, Walser's sense of ineffectuality is compounded when he suffers a series of deflating professional setbacks. He's baffled by the people around him, and his only solace is the hope of a romance-conducted via handwritten letters-with a mysterious woman who may not even exist.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs his despair with twenty-first century life reaches a breaking point, Walser bristles at a newly constructed sculpture that represents everything he loathes about these times. Realizing that he has more to care about-and fight for-outside himself, he marches toward a final showdown with this towering symbol of oppressive technology.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Jackson Heights Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48569980485873,"sku":"9781733258531","price":14.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0674\/5433\/7265\/files\/9781733258531_p0.jpg?v=1786829733","url":"https:\/\/shop.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781733258531","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble","version":"1.0","type":"link"}