{"product_id":"the-petting-zoo-a-novel","title":"The Petting Zoo: A Novel","description":"\u003cp\u003eA moving  vividly rendered novel from the late author of The Basketball Diaries.  When poet  musician  and diarist Jim Carroll died in September 2009  he was putting the finishing touches on a potent work of fiction. The Petting Zoo tells the story of Billy Wolfram  an enigmatic thirty- eight-year-old artist who has become a hot star in the late-1980s New York art scene. As the novel opens  Billy  after viewing a show of Velzquez paintings  is so humbled and awed by their spiritual power that he suffers an emotional breakdown and withdraws to his Chelsea loft. In seclusion  Billy searches for the divine spark in his own work and life. Carrolls novel moves back and forth in time to present emblematic moments from Billys life (his Irish Catholic upbringing  his teenage escapades  his evolution as an artist and meteoric rise to fame) and sharply etched portraits of the characters who mattered most to him  including his childhood friend Denny MacAbee  now a famous rock musician; his mentor  the unforgettable art dealer Max Bernbaum; and one extraordinary black bird. Marked by Carrolls sharp wit  hallucinatory imagery  and street-smart style  The Petting Zoo is a frank  haunting examination of one artists personal and professional struggles.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44966263029813,"sku":"ByrdShop_0670022187","price":45.47,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780670022182.jpg?v=1770558929","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-petting-zoo-a-novel","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}