Barth Blurbs
“His vows to the muse… prohibited among other things the blurbing of blurbs except for first books by his former apprentices at our joint alma mater.”
– Barth writing about himself in Coming Soon!!!, p. 361
“I mean, does a blurb by John Barth on a young novelist’s book mean anything? Don’t you just assume this was a nice kid in one of his classes at Hopkins?”
– Author Bard Cole in a post on Salon.com
In an effort to compile all the random trivia involving John Barth’s life, I’ve started here a page listing his promotional blurbs for other authors. Lord knows what use this list is, other than to help promote the authors that Barth sees fit to promote. Please drop me a line if you find any more! (Thanks to Kris Majer, Steve Mattingly, Tim Kaczmarek and Patrick Maguire.)Clicking on a book’s title will take you to that book’s listing on Amazon.com.Peter Baida, A Nurse’s Story and Others“What a gifted storyteller we lost when Peter Baida died so young! Tough love and unsentimental compassion for the old, infirm, and fallen run through these wise and moving stories. In several of the best of them, one feels a whole novel’s worth of life.”
Donald Barthelme, Not-Knowing: The Essays and Interviews
(Actually this blurb is an excerpt from Barth’s introduction to the book… but it does appear on the book jacket. Who’s counting anyway?)
“I count myself among the ideal auditors of my late comrade Donald Barthelme — invariably delighted, over the too-few decades of his career, by his short stories, his novels, his infrequent but soundly argued essays into aesthetics, and his miscellaneous nonfiction pieces. I have grown used to DB-ing in happy binges when a new collection of the wondrous stuff appears and I set other reading aside to go straight through it, savoring the wit, the bite, the exactitude and flair, inspired whimsy, aw-shucks urbanity, irreal realism and real irreality, wired tersitude, and suchlike Barthelmanic pleasures.”
Frederick Barthelme, Moon Deluxe
“The author of Moon Deluxe is a bright star in the constellation of new American short story writers.”
Frederick Barthelme, Bob the Gambler
“Frederick Barthelme’s fiction abounds in lovingly unsettled characters and American junk culture, masterfully observed. Bob the Gambler is a beguiling new booksworth of this abundance.”
Steve Barthelme, And He Tells the Little Horse the Whole Story
“Steve Barthelme’s And He Tells the Little Horse the Whole Story is rich in laid-back realism, winsome fantasy, love, art, cats, and surprises. A first-rate first book.”
Stephen Dixon, Frog
“Dixon fans will find what they like here in abundance: startling candor, humor, and concern; every utterance promptly qualified; rigorous narrative economy combined with near-manic obsessiveness. Embrace Frog and you will be held by a princely storyteller.”
John Domini, Highway Trade: Short Stories and a Novella
“Streetwise and pain-acquainted, John Domini’s new story-collection is a good rich read indeed.”
John Domini, Bedlam
“The stories in Bedlam — both the realistic ones and the fantastic ones — add up to an impressive first collection. Domini’s voice is engaging, insistent, earnest, curious, unsentimental but compassionate.”
Güneli Gün, The Book of Trances: A Novel of Magic Recitals
“Güneli Gün is a shrewd and magical Turkish-American story-teller, sired by Garcia Marquez upon Scheherazade.”
Lawrence Hill, Any Known Blood
“A good storyteller with an unusually good story to tell… Lawrence Hill’s Any Known Blood retails the fascinating history of an African-Canadian-American family of superachievers from the Underground Railroad to the present. An impressive and absorbing narrative indeed.”
Steven Kotler, The Angle Quickest for Flight
“A brilliant first novel! Steven Kotler’s The Angle Quickest for Flight takes wing confidently with its crew of erratic, questing, dangerful spirits and then flies and flies.”
Michael Martone, The Blue Guide to Indiana
“Among our wealth of excellent new American short-story writers, Michael Martone is one particularly worth reading.”
Louise Redd, Playing the Bones
“A winsome tale, winsomely told. Louise Redd plays the bones of her first novel without missing a beat.”
Mary Robison, Days
“Mary Robison’s hard-edged, fine-tooled, enigmatic super-realism is a joy.”
Brooke Stevens, The Circus of the Earth and the Air
“Brooke Stevens’s first novel unfolds like a vivid, sustained, and scarifying dream.”
Arne Tangherlini, Leo@fergusrules.com
“Alice in Cyberland! A brilliant and engaging first novel!”