{"product_id":"dear-ann-a-novel-isbn-9780062986658","title":"Dear Ann: A Novel","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLonglisted for the 2021\u003cbr\u003ePEN\/Faulkner Award for Fiction\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA \u003cem\u003eKirkus\u003c\/em\u003e Best Book of the Year\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFrom the acclaimed author of the classics\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eShiloh and Other Stories\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003c\/em\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eand I\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003en Country\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003c\/em\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ecomes a beautifully crafted and profoundly moving novel which follows a woman as she looks back over her life and her first love.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAnn\u003cbr\u003eWorkman is smart but naïve, a misfit who’s traveled from rural Kentucky to\u003cbr\u003egraduate school in the transformative years of the late 1960s. While Ann fervently\u003cbr\u003eseeks higher learning, she wants what all girls yearn for—a boyfriend. But not\u003cbr\u003eany boy. She wants the “Real Thing,” to be in love with someone who loves her\u003cbr\u003eequally.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eThen\u003cbr\u003eJimmy appears, as if by magic. Although he comes from a very different place,\u003cbr\u003eupper-middle class suburban Chicago, he is a misfit too, a rebel who rejects\u003cbr\u003ehis upbringing and questions everything. Ann and Jimmy bond through music and\u003cbr\u003eliterature and their own quirkiness, diving headfirst into what seems to be a\u003cbr\u003eperfect relationship. But with the Vietnam War looming and the country in\u003cbr\u003eturmoil, their future is uncertain.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eMany\u003cbr\u003eyears later, Ann recalls this time of innocence—and her own obsession with\u003cbr\u003eJimmy—as she faces another life crisis. Seeking escape from her problems, she\u003cbr\u003etries to imagine where she might be if she had chosen differently all those\u003cbr\u003eyears ago. What if she had gone to Stanford University, as her mentor had\u003cbr\u003eurged, instead of a small school on the East Coast? Would she have been caught\u003cbr\u003eup in the Summer of Love and its subsequent dark turns? Or would her own good\u003cbr\u003esense have saved her from disaster?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eBeautifully\u003cbr\u003ewritten and expertly told, \u003cem\u003eDear Ann\u003c\/em\u003e is the wrenching story of one\u003cbr\u003ewoman’s life and the choices she has made. Bobbie Ann Mason captures at once\u003cbr\u003ethe excitement of youth and the nostalgia of age, and how consideration of the\u003cbr\u003eroad not taken—the interplay of memory and imagination—can illuminate, and\u003cbr\u003eperhaps overtake, our present.\u003c\/p\u003e | \u003cp\u003e“Bobbie Ann Mason is one of those rare writers who, by concentrating their attention on a few square miles of native turf, are able to open up new and surprisingly wide worlds for the delighted reader.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe New York Review of Books on Shiloh and Other Stories\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Vividly recreates those heady counterculture days as a poignant backdrop for the regrets one often faces when one follows one’s head instead of one’s heart.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"A writer of power and sympathy, insight and great love for her characters.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNPR\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"A novel that, like a light bulb, burns an afterimage in our minds.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Times on In Country\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Captures the poignancy of first love, its effect on everything that follows, and the naïveté and uncertainty of youth in the chaos of cultural change. . . . Highly recommended.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“This elegant book will transport you to another era, with a love that's totally timeless.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eGood Housekeeping\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Ms. Mason’s first novel, \u003cem\u003eIn Country\u003c\/em\u003e, from 1985, was in part about the devastation the Vietnam War wrought on youthful innocence and idealism, and she thoughtfully pursues the theme again here. For all its sun-dappled daydreaming, \u003cem\u003eDear Ann\u003c\/em\u003e arrives at a place of surprising bitterness. The longer the escape, the more painful the return.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eWall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“In Bobbie Ann Mason's spectacular new novel, a woman looks back on her life, her first love and the choices she made. . . . The tale that unfolds is a profound examination of grief, regret and memory, wrapped in a compelling story of first love. Mason’s confident writing does not miss a step. . . . This book is as true as they come.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eMinneapolis Star Tribune\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A fine-tuned novel … brilliantly observed—and the would-be Stanford years contain a top-flight literary look at the impact of the Vietnam War on men and women of our generation on the home front.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe VVA Veteran\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"You can practically smell the incense and hear the Beatles in this love letter to the counterculture of the 1960s.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePeople\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Deeply moving. . . . A beautifully written homage to the 1960s by a mature writer at the top of her literary power.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus, starred review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"A strange and beautiful writer.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eGeorge Saunders\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Harper","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44889314984165,"sku":"NP9780062986658","price":27.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780062986658.jpg?v=1730230989","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/dear-ann-a-novel-isbn-9780062986658","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}