PositiveThe Seattle Times[Davies] attempts something new: an unnamed third-person narrator, a contemporary story delivered in the fashion of a prose-poem, and a meandering style. It is a candid look at fatherhood ... It becomes obvious that the author has embraced many of the tips he advocates to his writing students: Flesh out your characters. Choose your words carefully ... the father reveals on another occasion: \'He once told students his goal in writing: I am trying to break your heart.\' That perhaps best sums up the reaction a reader has upon finishing the book.
Willy Vlautin
PositiveThe Seattle Times\"...the writing is spare and straightforward, with few descriptions and hardly any room for introspection. There is intensity in Vlautin’s narration, and also beauty and power ... Parts of the road trip strain credulity. Charley has frequent brushes with the law, but each time manages to escape and arrive safely in the next town ... Despite these flaws, we find ourselves sympathetic toward Charley and quietly root for him to succeed. Many of the supporting players, such as Del, also make a vivid impression. But Vlautin’s major accomplishment lies in posing a damning question: How could we, as a society, have allowed this to happen?\
Aleksandar Hemon
PositiveThe Seattle TimesTogether with Rora, a fellow Bosnian and photographer, Brik sets out on a trip to Eastern Europe in search of Lazarus\' past. They begin with the town in Russia where Lazarus was born and journey on, tracing the history of this pogrom victim and political refugee, interviewing people, but often simply imagining the past ... In his second novel, The Lazarus Project, MacArthur \'genius grant\' winner Aleksandar Hemon (Nowhere Man) has undertaken the challenge of interweaving two narratives, one factual, another fictional. With the Lazarus story line, which is believed to closely follow actual historical events, he\'s done a convincing job ... On the other hand, the fictional Brik story line tends to meander, crammed with idle conversations, odd encounters and digressions into hazy memories of the past. Hemon, however, delivers a startling finish with a poignant twist ...he never writes a boring sentence.
Arundhati Roy
RaveThe Seattle TimesOnce again, Roy demonstrates her mastery of exquisite prose, visionary intelligence and a bent for epic storytelling ... Political tensions are ever present in this book...Yet there are tender moments, luminous in their transcendence, to lift the reader’s mood. Some of the best include those that Tilo and Musa spend together. These artfully drawn portraits of intimacy also perhaps best convey the dominant message of the book.
Rabih Alameddine
MixedThe Seattle Times\"Alameddine forgoes the use of chronology and plotting in favor of constructing a character study of a brilliant but tormented soul ... The novel has a choppy, disturbing quality, which is perhaps a technique to immerse the reader into Jacob’s mental landscape. It is not an easy read. In the end, what propels one to keep turning the pages is Jacob’s indomitable spirit in dealing with whatever comes his way.\
Luc Sante
PositiveThe Seattle TimesIn this exhaustively researched and abundantly illustrated book, Sante draws references from art, film, history, literature and the French language. He peppers his pages with wit, empathy and a sense of inclusiveness. Through his writing, Paris becomes a metaphor for those historic cities of the world that have forsaken their past way of life in pursuit of modernity.
