{"product_id":"the-great-wide-open","title":"Douglas Kennedy: The Great Wide Open [2019] paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'[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.' - \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eIndependent on Sunday\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003e\"All families are secret societies. Realms of intrigue and internal warfare, governed by their own rules . . .\"\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt'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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs she reads she wonders: When did the sadness start? And could it be that unhappiness is a choice?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThus 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. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Great Wide Open\u003c\/i\u003e 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'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\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Kennedy's skill is to send you racing down the slope of sheer story.' - \u003ci\u003eEsquire\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Kennedy, Douglas","offers":[{"title":"New","offer_id":50960183296339,"sku":"9780091953737","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false},{"title":"Good","offer_id":47158148170067,"sku":"XG80091953737","price":6.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0616\/4001\/6057\/files\/kennedy-douglas-douglas-kennedy-the-great-wide-open-2019-paperback-xg80091953737-1139931217.jpg?v=1746985420","url":"https:\/\/theirishbookshop.live\/products\/the-great-wide-open","provider":"Chapters Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}