PositiveThe New York Times Book Review... both appropriately existential for this cultural moment and far enough behind it to evoke nostalgic recognition ... a clever conceit that lends structure to an otherwise roving, interior narrative ... Sometimes the novel’s digressions drift far from their original association, which might stretch the patience of a reader looking for traditional plot ... Thomas is a fluid writer who stitches these topics together, but the effect is still meandering and stream-of-consciousness ... I found myself wishing for the novel to do more with this raw material, to synthesize these awful facts instead of merely stating them ... But perhaps my desire to make sense of our time — and the novel’s inability to offer sensemaking — is the point. We are all frightened and exhausted. Like Winnie, we are uneasily confined on earth, performing our “attempt at endurance.” In this novel, the project of living is rendered with compassionate clarity. For the duration of The Performance, we can acknowledge the extent of our overwhelming burden, without looking away.
Paula Saunders
PositiveThe New York TimesI couldn’t help feeling disappointed [that] the novel’s exploration of prejudice and vulnerability remains incomplete ... Saunders movingly explores the difficulty of changing one’s course in the face of accumulated trauma, but the deeper implications of this rather delicate analogy to Native American experience remain unclear. Posing Leon as a subtle proxy for indigenity risks an oversimplified equivalence — unexpected in a novel sensitive to imbalance ... Still, Saunders skillfully illuminates how time heals certain wounds while deepening others, and her depiction of aging is viscerally affecting ... The Distance Home becomes a meditation on the violence of American ambition — and a powerful call for self-examination.
