{"product_id":"waking-up-in-toytown","title":"Waking Up in Toytown","description":"\u003cb\u003eWith wit, precision and grace, John Burnside's second memoir traces the aftershocks of a troubled childhood into troubled adulthood - with a new introduction by Sarah Perry\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWith wit, precision and grace, John Burnside's second memoir traces the aftershocks of a troubled childhood into troubled adulthood.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWith a new introduction by Sarah Perry\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Among the best writers of his generation, fully voiced and perfectly pitched' Andrew O'Hagan\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the early 80s, after a decade of drug abuse and borderline mental illness, John Burnside resolved to escape his addictive personality and find calm in a 'Surbiton of the mind.' But the suburbs are not quite as normal as he had imagined, and he relapses into chaos.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe encounters a homicidal office worker who is obsessed with Alfred Hitchcock and Petula Clark, an old lover, with whom he reprises a troubled, masochistic relationship and, finally, the seemingly flesh-and-blood embodiments of all his private phantoms, as he drifts further into unreality.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe second of John Burnside's extraordinary trilogy of memoirs, \u003ci\u003eWaking Up in Toytown\u003c\/i\u003e is the story of one man's search for sanity - but also the story of love that outgrows its restraints and a scorching enquiry into the soul, from one of our greatest contemporary writers.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Burnside's memoir deserves to become a classic. Has anyone written about the direct experience of mental illness with such scrupulous observation and wit?' \u003ci\u003eDaily Express\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e","brand":"John Burnside","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43515923300413,"sku":null,"price":25.64,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/7689\/2989\/files\/9781529962871.jpg?v=1787556368","url":"https:\/\/www.palmleaf.com.au\/products\/waking-up-in-toytown","provider":"Palmleaf","version":"1.0","type":"link"}