Desperate Characters

<p>&quot;A towering landmark of postwar Realism. . . . A sustained work of prose so lucid and fine it seems less written than carved.&quot; -- David Foster Wallace</p><p>Otto and Sophie Bentwood live in a changing neighborhood in Brooklyn. Their stainless-steel kitchen is newly installed, and their Mercedes is parked curbside. After Sophie is bitten on the hand while trying to feed a stray, perhaps rabies-infected cat, a series of small and ominous disasters begin to plague the Bentwoods' lives, revealing the fault lines and fractures in a marriage -- and a society -- wrenching itself apart.</p><p>First published in 1970 to wide acclaim, Desperate Characters stands as one of the most dazzling and rigorous examples of the storyteller's craft in postwar American literature -- a novel that, according to Irving Howe, ranks with &quot;Billy Budd, The Great Gatsby, Miss Lonelyhearts, and Seize the Day.&quot;</p>