{"product_id":"dangerous-laughter-thirteen-stories-isbn-9780307387479","title":"Dangerous Laughter: Thirteen Stories","description":"\u003cb\u003eFrom the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of \u003ci\u003eMartin Dressler\u003c\/i\u003e—hailed by \u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e as “a virtuoso of waking dreams”—comes a dazzling collection of darkly comic stories united by their obsession with obsession.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Remarkable ... Not just brilliant but prescient.\" \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e In \u003ci\u003eDangerous Laughter\u003c\/i\u003e, Steven Millhauser transports us to unknown universes that uncannily resemble our own.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe collection is divided into three parts that fit seamlessly together as a whole. It opens with a bang, as “Cat ’n’ Mouse” reimagines the deadly ritual between cartoon rivals in a comedy of dynamite and anvils—a masterly prologue that sets the stage for the alluring, very grown-up twists that follow.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePart one, “Vanishing Acts,” features stories of risk and escape: a lonely woman disappears without a trace; a high school boy becomes entangled with his best friend’s troubled sister; and a group of teenagers play a treacherous game that pushes them deep into “the kingdom of forbidden things.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eExcess reigns in the vivid, haunting places of Part two’s “Impossible Architectures,” where domes enclose whole cities, and a king’s master miniaturist creates objects so tiny that soon his entire world is invisible.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFinally, “Heretical Histories” presents startling alternatives to the remembered past. “A Precursor of the Cinema” proposes a new, enigmatic form of illusion. And in the astonishing “The Wizard of West Orange” a famous inventor sets out to simulate the sense of touch—but success brings disturbing consequences.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSensual, mysterious, \u003ci\u003eDangerous Laughter\u003c\/i\u003e is a mesmerizing journey through brilliantly realized labyrinths of mortal pleasures that stretch the boundaries of the ordinary world to their limits—and occasionally beyond.","brand":"Penguin Random House","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48534244622565,"sku":"NP9780307387479","price":21.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780307387479.jpg?v=1773240607","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/dangerous-laughter-thirteen-stories-isbn-9780307387479","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}