{"product_id":"9781648213106","title":"Staff Pick","description":"\u003cb\u003eWith the introduction of the drug-addicted screenwriter Bud Wiggins, Bruce Wagner’s first novel, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eForce Majeure\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e, was instantly compared to Nathanael West’s nihilistic \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eDay of the Locust\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e. In its companion book, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eStaff Pick\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e follows the darkly merciless, hallucinatory adventures of the father‘s progeny—Bud Wiggins Junior. An aging, forgotten novelist who finds himself figuratively and literally on the cusp of being out of print, Junior shadow-boxes with a sadistic, celebrated, long-dead father while becoming a shadow himself. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs he moves through the broken landscape of contemporary Los Angeles, Junior goes to imaginary war with famous literary adversaries, navigates everyday treacheries, is beset by old lovers gone mad, and ambushed by the vagaries of family: a surprise half-sister and a mother in a memory home who’s being malevolently seduced by an AI avatar. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWith scabrous tenderness, high and low comedy, and his characteristic saturation of spirituality, Wagner’s \u003ci\u003eStaff Pick\u003c\/i\u003e is a sacred symphony of loserdom—a “failed surgery” that becomes an unforgettable portrait of the artist as a quixotic old man.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e“He is a visionary posing as a farceur.” —Salman Rushdie\u003c\/b\u003e","brand":"Simon and Schuster","offers":[{"title":"eBook","offer_id":60770367013150,"sku":"9781648213106","price":12.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/shop.simonandschuster.com\/products\/9781648213106","provider":"Simon and Schuster","version":"1.0","type":"link"}