{"product_id":"9781399629744-the-oasis","title":"The Oasis","description":"\u003cmeta content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\" http-equiv=\"Content-Type\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cb\u003eMary McCarthy's beloved modern classic novel about a group of urban American intellectuals who try unsuccessfully to establish a rural utopian colony\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Oasis\u003c\/i\u003e is Mary McCarthy at her most incisive and mischievous, turning the American hunger for renewal into a razor-edged social comedy. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSet in the years just after World War II, the novel follows a band of intellectuals, artists, and political dreamers who abandon New York City for a dilapidated rural compound they grandly christen \"the Oasis.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTheir aim is nothing less than to build a new way of living - purged of capitalism, conformity, and moral compromise - through collective labour, shared ideals, and uncompromising honesty.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhat unfolds, however, is not utopia but an exquisitely observed anatomy of human contradiction. As the community struggles with muddy fields, leaking roofs, and endless meetings, old hierarchies quietly reassert themselves. Ideological purity gives way to vanity, rivalries harden into dogma, and personal desires undercut public virtue. McCarthy's cool, ironic narrator - both participant and skeptic - records how lofty principles collapse under the weight of ego, sexual politics and the stubborn persistence of class and power.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA W\u0026amp;N Essential\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Rarewaves","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57924910580086,"sku":"9781399629744","price":9.42,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/www.rarewaves.com\/products\/9781399629744-the-oasis","provider":"Rarewaves.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}