{"product_id":"2026600000731-secondhand-when-she-was-good","title":"When She Was Good","description":"\u003cp\u003eEdition: First British Edition\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition remarks:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBook: Good                          \u003cbr\u003eJacket: Wear and tear\u003cbr\u003ePages: Good                  \u003cbr\u003eMarkings: No markings\u003cbr\u003eCondition remarks: Boards - good. Binding - tight. Clean text. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA searing work of literary fiction, When She Was Good chronicles the turbulent life of Lucy Nelson, a young Midwestern woman whose fierce moral rigidity and desperate hunger for respectability set her on a collision course with everyone she loves. Set in a small American town in the years following World War II, Philip Roth constructs a portrait of suffocating domesticity and thwarted ambition, illustrating how the era's rigid social codes could trap women in cycles of frustration and rage. Written with unflinching psychological precision, the novel presents Lucy not as a simple villain or victim, but as a deeply human figure whose relentless demands for decency ultimately destroy her. Roth's prose is cold, controlled, and merciless, capturing the quiet violence of ordinary family life with devastating clarity. A departure from the autobiographical Jewish-American milieu of his other works, this novel stands as one of his most underrated and emotionally complex achievements.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Secondhand Stock","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48750325924059,"sku":"2026600000731-SECONDHAND","price":65.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0523\/7646\/9701\/files\/7dd82d88-3d07-4447-a882-6a9aaae3c539.png?v=1778094240","url":"https:\/\/bookgrocer.com\/products\/2026600000731-secondhand-when-she-was-good","provider":"Book Grocer","version":"1.0","type":"link"}