{"product_id":"2026600003054-secondhand-schmidt-steps-back","title":"Schmidt Steps Back","description":"\u003cp\u003eEdition: 1st us ed., 1st pr.,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition remarks:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBook: Very good                          \u003cbr\u003eJacket: Very good\u003cbr\u003ePages: Good                  \u003cbr\u003eMarkings: No markings\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA quietly devastating work of literary fiction, Schmidt Steps Back chronicles the later years of Albert Schmidt, a retired WASP lawyer navigating love, loss, and the stubborn persistence of old age with unsentimental clarity. Louis Begley presents Schmidt as a man caught between his ingrained patrician values and the messy, unpredictable emotional life that refuses to leave him in peace, as he finds himself drawn into a new romance while still haunted by grief and regret. The novel unfolds with Begley's signature restrained elegance, balancing dry wit with genuine pathos as Schmidt confronts questions of mortality, desire, and what it means to begin again in one's seventies. Rich with social observation and psychological precision, the narrative illustrates the quiet indignities and unexpected joys of a life lived in the long shadow of privilege and loss. Readers of Henry James or John Updike will find in Begley a worthy heir to the tradition of the American literary novel at its most refined and introspective.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Secondhand Stock","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48810638901467,"sku":"2026600003054-SECONDHAND","price":50.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0523\/7646\/9701\/files\/a4bc22e2-bb3f-4dda-9eba-f355ddca5c79.png?v=1779806427","url":"https:\/\/bookgrocer.com\/products\/2026600003054-secondhand-schmidt-steps-back","provider":"Book Grocer","version":"1.0","type":"link"}