{"product_id":"abbott-awaits-9780807137222","title":"Abbott Awaits","description":"\u003cp\u003eA quiet tour de force, Chris Bachelder's Abbott Awaits transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary, startlingly depicting the intense and poignant challenges of a vulnerable, imaginative father as he lives his everyday American existence.\u003cbr\u003eIn Abbott we see a modern-day Sisyphus: he is the exhausted father of a lively two-year old, the ruminative husband of a pregnant insomniac, and the confused owner of a terrified dog. Confronted by a flooded basement, a broken refrigerator, a urine-soaked carpet, and a literal snake in the woodpile, Abbott endures the beauty and hopelessness of each moment, often while contemplating evolutionary history, altruism, or the passage of time.\u003cbr\u003eAn expectant father and university teacher on summer break, Abbott tackles the agonizing chores of each day, laboring for peace in his household and struggling to keep his daughter clean and happy, all while staving off a fear of failure as a parent, and even as a human being. As he cleans car seats, forgets to apply sun block, clips his dog's nails, dresses his daughter out of season, and makes unsuccessful furniture-buying trips with his wife, his mind plays out an unrelenting series of paradoxical reflections. Abbott's pensive self-doubt comes to a head one day in late June as he cleans vomited raspberries out of his daughter's car seat and realizes: The following propositions are both true: (A) Abbott would not, given the opportunity, change one significant element of his life, but (B) Abbott cannot stand his life.\u003cbr\u003eComposed of small moments of domestic wonder and terror, Abbott Awaits is a charming story of misadventure, anxiety, and the everyday battles and triumphs of parenthood.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Louisiana State University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 03\/01\/2011\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780807137222\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 180\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.57lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.40h x 5.40w x 0.60d","brand":"Chris Bachelder","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":36644070260892,"sku":"9780807137222","price":25.46,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/products\/img_e6997dcf-45e7-42b8-94be-4436733b02a8.jpg?v=1603857846","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/abbott-awaits-9780807137222","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}