{"product_id":"sour-cherries-at-buc-ees","title":"Sour Cherries at Buc-ee's","description":"\u003cp\u003eWhat do sour cherries, a subway reprimand in Moscow, and an imaginary alligator named Fluffy have in common? In \u003cem\u003eSour Cherries at Buc-ee's\u003c\/em\u003e, Mark Elberfeld invites readers on a deeply personal-and often unexpectedly funny-journey through memory, movement, and meaning.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFrom a seventh-grade retreat on the Mattaponi River to the surreal vastness of a Buc-ee's gas station, Elberfeld traces the threads of identity, place, and connection. Whether he's reflecting on summer camp, road trips in an electric car, the quiet radicalism of hospitality, or a friend's hauntingly beautiful art show, his essays linger in that liminal space between the ordinary and the profound.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWith humor, honesty, and a teacher's instinct for drawing meaning from mess, Elberfeld explores what it means to leave, to return, to remember, and to reframe. For anyone who's ever found themselves crying in a parking lot, questioning the shape of freedom, or chasing summer like a white whale-this book might just be the life ring you didn't know you needed.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"In Mark Elberfeld's Sour Cherries, we meet something to relish: an unrelenting mind on the page. Here, we travel to summer camp, to Switzerland, to Vermont, and that dreaded region: chemistry class. Humorous and meditative, \u003cem\u003eSour Cherries\u003c\/em\u003e ponders that age-old quandary: Why must we travel away to really understand who we are, at home, in ourselves? Building in tension, with wide-ranging material from Frankenstein and Walt Whitman to Shawna Miller and getting a rental car, Sour Cherries is a delight that explores all the complexities of human emotion.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e--Taylor Brorby, author of\u003cem\u003e Boys and Oil: Growing Up Gay in a Fractured Land\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"[C]aught as we all are in this politically divisive moment, as distrust and cynicism hold sway, Elberfeld's sensibilities could not be more timely or necessary. The writer's curiosity and good-will, whether among friends or strangers, offer the rare alternative of civility across difference.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e--Laurie Clark\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Mark Elberfeld","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":47282021204204,"sku":"9798891329119","price":29.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":47282021236972,"sku":"9798891329980","price":42.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0684\/1791\/3068\/files\/9798891329119.jpg?v=1770321296","url":"https:\/\/intl.allstora.com\/products\/sour-cherries-at-buc-ees","provider":"Allstora","version":"1.0","type":"link"}