{"product_id":"the-night-ocean-by-paul-la-farge-trade-paperback","title":"The Night Ocean by Paul La Farge (Trade Paperback)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eMarina Willett, M.D., has a problem. Her husband, Charlie, has become obsessed with H.P. Lovecraft, in particular with one episode in the legendary horror writer's life: In the summer of 1934, the \"old gent\" lived for two months with a gay teenage fan named Robert Barlow, at Barlow's family home in central Florida. What were the two of them up to? Were they friends--or something more? Just when Charlie thinks he's solved the puzzle, a new scandal erupts, and he disappears. The police say it's suicide. Marina is a psychiatrist, and she doesn't believe them.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA tour-de-force of storytelling, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eThe Night Ocean\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e follows the lives of some extraordinary people: Lovecraft, the most influential American horror writer of the 20th century, whose stories continue to win new acolytes, even as his racist views provoke new critics; Barlow, a seminal scholar of Mexican culture who killed himself after being blackmailed for his homosexuality (and who collaborated with Lovecraft on the beautiful story \"The Night Ocean\"); his student, future Beat writer William S. Burroughs; and L.C. Spinks, a kindly Canadian appliance salesman and science-fiction fan -- the only person who knows the origins of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eThe Erotonomicon\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, purported to be the intimate diary of Lovecraft himself.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs a heartbroken Marina follows her missing husband's trail in an attempt to learn the truth, the novel moves across the decades and along the length of the continent, from a remote Ontario town, through New York and Florida to Mexico City. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eThe Night Ocean\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e is about love and deception -- about the way that stories earn our trust, and betray it.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Friends of the St Mary's County Library","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48405917434105,"sku":null,"price":3.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0475\/5806\/6334\/files\/101_8448.jpg?v=1778858919","url":"https:\/\/folstmarys.com\/products\/the-night-ocean-by-paul-la-farge-trade-paperback","provider":"Friends of the St Mary's County Library","version":"1.0","type":"link"}