{"product_id":"maiden-9781965028063","title":"Maiden","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA thirty-year-old virgin embarks on a quest to find true love in this rediscovered post-modern tragicomedy.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"She was a virgin and her virginity had burrowed in. . . . the idea of sex had such a grip on her that she tried to avoid, totally, thinking about sex.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCynthia Buchanan's \u003ci\u003eMaiden\u003c\/i\u003e was a sensation when it was published in 1972, earning comparisons to the generation-defining novels of Sylvia Plath and Joan Didion. More than fifty years later, it remains a startlingly contemporary, highly stylish satire of heterosexual romance and the sex-and-drug-addled California of the 1960s.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eThirty-year-old Fortune Dundy is not ready to give up on finding her one true love. Unencumbered by experience or social grace, she pursues romance through endless date-matching questionnaires and personal ads, a virginal Don Quixote in rhinestones and sequins. Her only confidant is Bert, named for the real-life host of the televised Miss America pageant, who lives in her head and offers commentary on her every disastrous interaction with the opposite sex.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eA flyer for a swinging singles apartment complex named Villa Dionysus beckons Fortune to Southern California, where she hopes to find love amid the sand and suntan oil. She meets a slew of desperate characters--including her roommate Biscuit, an embittered divorcee with a psychotic jealous streak; Milo, Biscuit's boorish new boyfriend; and Skip, a handsome and elusive dentist--who become ensnared in her quest for the Right One.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eA glitter-and-blood tragicomedy as audacious as Eve Babitz's boozy stories of California malaise, written at a time when postmodern fiction was considered the province of male writers, \u003ci\u003eMaiden\u003c\/i\u003e is a true American literary original, and Fortune Dundy one of literature's most lovable antiheroines: hopeful, delusional, and absolutely unforgettable.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Hagfish\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 10\/27\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781965028063\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 224","brand":"Cynthia Buchanan","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53195213602997,"sku":"9781965028063","price":16.15,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/files\/9781965028063.jpg?v=1788273437","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/maiden-9781965028063","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}