Tumbledown - Softcover

Praise for Robert Boswell

"Boswell is capable of calibrating the blur of emotion with exquisite precision." --"The Boston Globe
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"Often funny and always electrifying . . . One can't help but be reminded of the skill and grace of [Denis] Johnson." --"The Kansas City Star
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"[Boswell] shows a sensitive and comprehensive understanding of the quirks that can shake a person off course: from fear, passivity and pride to external knocks and dings that are easier to spot, harder to fix." --"The New York Times Book Review"

"A moving portrait of a family both torn apart and united by grief." --"The New Yorker"

"Utterly compelling . . . Boswell moves from the absurd to the tragic without comment, excuse, or explanation." --"The Washington Post Book World"

"Stunning . . . Cross Anne Tyler with Michael Chabon and you'd get a cast something like the one Boswell has bred." --"Milwaukee Journal Sentinel"

Praise for "Tumbledown" "Robert Boswell has always been an extremely appealing writer: uncommonly intuitive, a sparkling observer, graceful yet surprising sentence-to-sentence; and always in pursuit of important complexity in human behavior--a rare gift, which makes his writing increasingly essential." --Richard Ford"This is a crowded, tender, and captivating novel, the experience of which brings to the fore how reading itself can replenish our love of the imperfect beauty of humanity." --"Publishers Weekly," starred review"If you read "Tumbledown" in public, beware: Boswell's story is barkingly, snort-spurtingly, people-give-you-looks funny. Yet its humor is the most generous kind, uncynical and unsentimental, and woven through an ensemble story so large-hearted it keeps bursting its narrative seams. The result is a brilliant, humane, engrossing argument for how infinitely whacked and contingent life can be, and therefore how desperately we need one another to survive. I finished it with a long contented sigh, thinking, this is why I love reading novels." --David Wroblewski, author of "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle""[An] absorbing tale of modern chaos steeped in moral issues." --"Library Journal""Boswell displays immense talent for characterization and observation . . . An impressive work." --"Kirkus Reviews"

Praise for Robert Boswell:
"Boswell is capable of calibrating the blur of emotion with exquisite precision." --"The Boston Globe
"
"Often funny and always electrifying . . . One can't help but be reminded of the skill and grace of [Denis] Johnson." --"The Kansas City Star
"
"[Boswell] shows a sensitive and comprehensive understanding of the quirks that can shake a person off course: from fear, passivity and pride to external knocks and dings that are easier to spot, harder to fix." --"The New York Times Book Review"

"A moving portrait of a family both torn apart and united by grief." --"The New Yorker"

"Utterly compelling . . . B

Praise for "Tumbledown"

"A winning ensemble cast of therapists and patients make stabs at sanity in Robert Boswell's mordantly funny novel "Tumbledown."" --"Vanity Fair""Boswell can write the most refreshingly old-fashioned kind of narrative: one that evokes deep sympathy for all its characters. . . . All the novel's characters know that in adulthood they're supposed to settle for what could pass for a normal life. Maybe it was a C- sort of life, but that was a passing grade. Still, they want to keep hope, wonder and love in their lives. . . . Without a whiff of sentimentality, he shows exactly how elusive such balance can be." --"The New York Times Book Review""A deft twining of irony and insight on nearly every page. . . . "Tumbledown" wryly mines the heartache in emotional disturbances, some present from birth and the rest brought on by the business of living." --"The New York Times"

"A complicated, nuanced look at human experience and the insights into that experience contributed by people of varying kinds of intelligence. Oh, it's funny, too. . . . What most enlivens "Tumbledown" is the moving inner life that Boswell imagines for his mentally disabled characters. " --"The Washington Post""["Tumbledown"] blossoms in surprising ways. . . . It's hilarious, sad, messy, and often unintentionally insightful. Boswell manages to treat each of his lost souls--even the most shabby, offensive, and insane among them--with affection and understanding. . . .He's writing excellent books about the complexities, frailties, and triumphs of human relationships in the modern age." --"The Daily Beast""When most of us think of today's great American novel, we think of Franzen's "Freedom "or Egan's "A Visit from the Goon Squad"--sprawling stories that comment on contemporary society as we live it. "Tumbledown," Robert Boswell's latest, is just such a book--and one you'll stay up until 3 a.m. reading. . . . Boswell is a writer who can see the humanity, and yes, even beauty, in