{"product_id":"running-the-light-9780593978870","title":"Running the Light","description":"\u003cb\u003eA bona fide \"instant classic\" (Doug Stanhope) novel that tells the story of a road comic crashing and burning by acclaimed comedian Sam Tallent\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eBilly Ray Schafer stepped off the plane in Amarillo, Texas, with twenty-six hundred dollars tucked down the leg of his black ostrich-skin cowboy boot. He walked to baggage claim slowly, jelly-legged and nearing lucidity, coming out from under the Xanax he snorted before the flight.\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eDebauched, divorced, and courting death, Billy Ray Schafer is a comedian who has forgotten how to laugh. Over the course of seven spun-out days across the American Southwest, he travels from hell gig to hell gig in search of a reason to keep living in this bleak and violent glimpse into the psyche of a thoroughly ruined man. Ex-inmate, ex-husband, ex-father--comedian is the only title Schafer has left. Trapped in the wreckage of his wasted career, Billy Ray knows the answer to the question: What happens when opportunity doesn't come--or worse--it comes and goes? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"In vivid, electric sentences that read like cinematic tracking shots,\" (\u003ci\u003eDenver Post\u003c\/i\u003e) Tallent hurls you into an absolute mess of a man's life as we search for the mercy he does not want.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Random House Trade\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 03\/25\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780593978870\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 352\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.81lbs","brand":"Sam Tallent","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45058768240821,"sku":"9780593978870","price":15.3,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/files\/img_e4ef77a2-38e1-43ae-8e98-86bf231d1254.jpg?v=1738078333","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/running-the-light-9780593978870","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}