Perhaps it was winning the National Book Award that made Jonathan Franzenfeel like literature’s magnanimous elder statesman. Or perhaps it was theOprah blow-up impressing upon him that you can never have too many friends.Or perhaps it was simply that writing blurbs for other people’s novels iseasier than writing your own. But whatever the reason, Franzen’s praise isfeatured on a libraryful of new releases. Herewith the master’s latestworks.
“Adam Haslett is a wonderful rarity: an old-fashioned young storyteller with something urgent and fresh and fiercely intelligent to say.” (You Are Not a Stranger Here, Adam Haslett; Doubleday; summer catalog 2002)
“Tom Barbash brings fresh seriousness and sympathy and wit to bear on the ancient problem of loyalty. This is an ambitious, deftly plotted, multifariously satisfying piece of genuine American realism.” (The Last Good Chance, Tom Barbash; Picador; fall catalog 2002)
“Jeffrey Eugenides is a big and big-hearted talent, and Middlesex is a weird, wonderful novel that will sweep you off your feet.” (Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides; Farrar, Straus & Giroux, fall catalog 2002)
“An exceptionally smart and likable first novel that tries valiantly to ransom Beauty from its commercial captors.” (The Savage Girl, Alex Shakar; HarperCollins; fall catalog 2002)