{"product_id":"the-making-of-toro-bullfights-broken-hearts-and-one-authors-quest-for-the-acclaim-he-deserves-paperback","title":"The Making of Toro: Bullfights, Broken Hearts, and One Author's Quest for the Acclaim He Deserves - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eMark Sundeen\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eMark Sundeen receives a call from a big city publisher with an offer to write a book about bullfighting in Spain.\u003c\/b\u003e Sundeen agrees, assuming that this is his best and last chance to follow the trajectory of his literary heroes, despite the fact that he has never been to a bullfight, doesn't speak Spanish, and is not even a particularly good reporter. \u003cbr\u003e After squandering most of the book advance, Sundeen can't afford a trip to Spain, so he settles for nearby Mexico. But the bullfighting he finds there is tawdry and comical, and there's little of the passion and bravery that he'd hoped to employ in exhibiting his literary genius to the masses. \u003cbr\u003e To compensate for his own shortcomings as an author, Sundeen invents an alter ego, Travis LaFrance, a swashbuckling adventure writer in the tradition of Sundeen's idol, Ernest Hemingway. When LaFrance steps in, our narrator goes blundering through the landscape of his own dreams and delusions, propelled solely by the preposterous insistence that his own life story, no matter how crummy, is worth being told in the pages of Great Literature. \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eThe Making of Toro\u003c\/i\u003e is a unique comic classic and a sly, poignant tale of the hazards of trying too hard to turn real life into high art.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eMark Sundeen\u003c\/b\u003e is the author of \u003ci\u003eCar Camping\u003c\/i\u003e and lives in Utah.\u003c\/p\u003e\n        \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 179\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.6 x 8.4 x 5.5 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eIllustrated:\u003c\/strong\u003e Yes\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e December 23, 2010\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42782918574215,"sku":"9780743255639","price":13.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0601\/2623\/2711\/files\/3811dc99acfd04460df29a44a5254e71.webp?v=1749456030","url":"https:\/\/booksby.splitshops.com\/products\/the-making-of-toro-bullfights-broken-hearts-and-one-authors-quest-for-the-acclaim-he-deserves-paperback","provider":"Books by splitShops","version":"1.0","type":"link"}