{"product_id":"the-queen-of-puerto-rico-and-other-stories","title":"The Queen of Puerto Rico: And Other Stories","description":"\u003cp\u003eJoe Frank has been called \"the apostle of radio noir.\" In this first collection of stories  he takes us on an obsessive  violent  and sexual odyssey in which individual lives become emblematic of a larger spiritual crisis. He also captures on paper the same eerie speculation and humor he delivers in his late-night monologues on National Public Radio. We meet characters who have jobs  not careers  who lead lives of half-steps  of rootlessness without cause. Franks narratives result in a kaleidoscopic sense of time  wherein entire lives pass with a few brief moments of inchoate realization. Moments of comic lunacy blend with scenes of great poignancy and terror. In the novella \"Night \" the protagonist wanders through a series of odd jobs  through prison  to Vietnam  to become the right-hand man of a television evangelist  and without any more purpose approaches his own death. In \"Fat Man \" a college student travels across the country stealing brownies from roadside Howard Johnsons and then spends the next year returning them. \"Date\" encapsulates a womans entire life in her boyfriends suggestions for her personal ad. \"The Decline of the Spengler\" is a wildly inventive radio play in which the narrative of a funeral is melded with the dreams of a playwright slowly slipping into madness. In their desperation  the characters in Joe Franks world  such as the \"Fat Man \" can only dream of meaningfulness: \"You know  when I think about myself and the life Ive led  I feel self-loathing  shame  and disgust. Im a waste and a failure. But when I imagine myself as a character in a novel ... well  I think Im pretty interesting  kind of off-beat  intriguing  entertaining.\" For years  Joe Franks broadcasts have invited millions of listeners to the strange world of his mesmerizing stories. In this  his first book  Frank effortlessly segues to the printed page and imparts a new resonance to his narrative inventions.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44966548668469,"sku":"ByrdShop_0688087655","price":315.59,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780688087654.jpg?v=1770567535","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-queen-of-puerto-rico-and-other-stories","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}