{"product_id":"the-lemon-table","title":"The Lemon Table","description":"Master prose stylist Julian Barnes presents a collection of stories whose characters  are growing old and facing the end of their lives—some with bitterness, some with  resignation and others with raging defiance.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Life is just a premature reaction  to death,” was what Viv’s husband used to say. Once her lover and friend, he is now  Viv’s semi-helpless charge, who is daily sinking ever deeper into dementia. In “Appetite,”  Viv has found a way to reach her husband: by reading aloud snippets of recipe books  until he calls out indelible—and sometimes unfortunate—scenes locked away in  his brain. In “The Things You Know,” two elderly friends enjoy their monthly breakfast  meetings that neither would ever think of missing. Of course, all they really have  in common is a fondness for flat suede shoes and a propensity for thinking spiteful,  unspoken thoughts about one another’s dead husbands. “The Fruit Cage” is narrated  by a middle-aged man whose seemingly orderly upbringing is harrowingly undone when  he discovers that his parents’ old age is not necessarily a time of serenity but  actually an age of aroused, perhaps violent, passions.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e In these stories, Julian  Barnes displays the erudition, wit and uncanny insight into the human mind that mark  him as one of today’s great writers, one whose intellect and humour never obscure  a genuine affection for his characters.","brand":"Julian Barnes","offers":[{"title":"Paperback \/ softback","offer_id":51328108757208,"sku":"9780679313045","price":19.95,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2770\/5320\/files\/cover-9780679313045.jpg?v=1769195772","url":"https:\/\/destiil.com\/products\/the-lemon-table","provider":"De Stiil Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}