{"product_id":"commitment-mona-simpson-paperback","title":"Commitment -- Mona Simpson, Paperback","description":"\u003cb\u003eA \u003ci\u003eNEW YORKER \u003c\/i\u003eAND \u003ci\u003eLOS ANGELES TIMES \u003c\/i\u003eBEST BOOK OF THE YEAR - A masterful and engrossing novel about a single mother's collapse and the fate of her family after she enters a California state hospital in the 1970s. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"A sweeping family epic that took me from one American coast to another...Simpson is so attuned to the family heart.\" --Weike Wang, author of \u003ci\u003eJoan Is Okay\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhen Diane Aziz drives her oldest son, Walter, from Los Angeles to college at UC Berkeley, it will be her last parental act before falling into a deep depression. A single mother who maintains a wishful belief that her children can attain all the things she hasn't, she's worked hard to secure their future in caste-driven 1980s Los Angeles, gaining them illegal entry to an affluent public school. When she enters a state hospital, her closest friend tries to keep the children safe and their mother's dreams for them alive. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAt Berkeley, Walter discovers a passion for architecture just as he realizes his life as a student may need to end for lack of funds. Back home in LA, his sister, Lina, who works in an ice-cream parlor while her wealthy classmates are preparing for Ivy league schools, wages a high stakes gamble to go there with them. And Donny, the little brother everybody loves, begins to hide in plain sight, coding, gaming, and drifting towards a life on the beach, where he falls into an escalating relationship with drugs. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eMoving from Berkeley and Los Angeles to New York and back again, this is a story about one family trying to navigate the crisis of their lives, a crisis many know first-hand in their own families or in those of their neighbors. A resonant novel about family and duty and the attendant struggles that come when a parent falls ill, \u003ci\u003eCommitment\u003c\/i\u003e honors the spirit of fragile, imperfect mothers and the under-chronicled significance of friends, in determining the lives of our children left on their own. With \u003ci\u003eCommitment\u003c\/i\u003e, Mona Simpson, one of the foremost chroniclers of the American family in our time, has written her most important and unforgettable novel.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Mona Simpson\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Vintage\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 02\/06\/2024\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 416\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.66lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 7.98h x 5.30w x 0.65d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780593312964\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMONA SIMPSON is the author of \u003ci\u003eAnywhere But Here\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Lost Father\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eA Regular Guy\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eOff Keck Road\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eMy Hollywood\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eCasebook\u003c\/i\u003e. She has received a Whiting Writer's award, a Hodder Fellowship at Princeton, an NEA fellowship, a Guggenheim grant, a Lila Wallace Prize, a Literature Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Mary McCarthy Prize. \u003ci\u003eOff Keck Road\u003c\/i\u003e was a finalist for the PEN\/Faulkner Award and won the Heartland Prize from the \u003ci\u003eChicago Tribune\u003c\/i\u003e. She was recently elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters and is the publisher of \u003ci\u003eThe Paris Review\u003c\/i\u003e, where she worked as an editor in her twenties. She lives in Santa Monica, California. She's on the faculty at UCLA, where she often teaches \u003ci\u003eMiddlemarch\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Mona Simpson","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45673946087652,"sku":"9780593312964","price":15.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0611\/9587\/8628\/files\/9780593312964.jpg?v=1727539329","url":"https:\/\/bookandmortar.com\/products\/commitment-mona-simpson-paperback","provider":"BookandMortar","version":"1.0","type":"link"}