See more praise for Michael Malone See if Michael Malone is coming to your town Michael Malone on ABC-7
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06/17/2009 |
RJ Julia |
Madison, CT |
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06/20/2009 |
Borders |
Milford, CT |
PRAISE FOR MICHAEL MALONE
“Malone... delights the reader with his witty eye for the kind of detail that proclaims with humor and confidence, ‘This is true!’”
The Los Angeles Times Book Review
“Malone shows a knack for colorful characters, snappy dialogue and tragicomic human foibles.”
The Salt Lake Tribune
“Michael Malone has a true narrative gift, the true eye for the character in action, and a fluent prose wrought carefully and well…A real accomplishment.”
Robert Penn Warren
“Malone has an imagination like Kafka’s—Mixed with that of Ernie Kovacs.”
The Raleigh News and Observer
“A superbly stylish author whose books deserve the widest audience.”
The New Yorker
“Michael Malone exhibits the balance and showmanship of a champion acrobat, parodying every square inch of his native South even as he pays affectionate homage to the characters of the place and its people.”
Newsday
“Malone’s ear for voices and dialects, his comic timing, and his gaudy sense of the comic are marvelous.”
Christian Science Monitor
“Brilliant and entertaining...Wonderfully shrewd…Mr. Malone’s characters have dimension and scope.”
The New York Times Book Review
San Francisco Chronicle
“Malone knows his Piedmont the way William Faulkner knew his Yoknapatawpha, but he’s much more fun to read!”
Philadelphia Inquirer
“One of the most entertaining portraitists of the new South.”
Publishers Weekly
ALSO AVAILABLE BY MICHAEL MALONE
Sourcebooks Landmark is proud to be publishing the following titles of Michael Malone’s backlist.
- The Delectable Mountains
- Dingley Falls
- First Lady
- Foolscap
- Handling Sin
- Red Clay, Blue Cadillac
- Time's Witness
- Uncivil Seasons
Dingley Falls
In the sleepy town of Dingley Falls, Connecticut, something funny is going on. Strange forces are pulling together the oddest of couples: a mild-mannered matron and a lascivious avant-garde poet; a sleek headmaster and a shy young curate; a hippie librarian and the wayward daughter of a local tycoon. What’s more, mailboxes are being stuffed with shockingly violent hate letters, even as a mysterious ailment takes the lives of perfectly healthy people. Not to mention those strange lights from a secret base flashing in the depths of the forest…
With a sparkling range of characters whose lives intricately and often hilariously criss-cross over a single week, Michael Malone offers us a sublime joyride in his classic novel. Once you’ve visited Dingley Falls and met its wacky population of unlikely heroes, bumbling villains and an oddly endearing supporting cast, one thing is certain: you’ll never forget it.
PRAISE FOR DINGLEY FALLS
"A wondrous achievement. Malone’s novel is as lusty, whimsical, tragic—even as bizarre—as life itself. It is a triumph of the highest order."
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
"Witty, intelligent, deeply felt and vividly narrated."
The New York Times Book Review
"DINGLEY FALLS is a wonderful novel, impressive in every way and constantly entertaining. Everything in this book sparkles and rings true."
Chicago Tribune
If not the great American novel…DINGLEY FALLS is surely the great American comedy. The two may just be synonymous."
St. Louis Post Dispatch
"A wild original – funny and passionate and wise. DINGLEY FALLS is a marvelous journey into absurdity, humor, and compassion."
Alice Hoffman
“Michael Malone has a true narrative gift, the true eye for the character in action, and a fluent prose wrought carefully and well…A real accomplishment.”
Robert Penn Warren
The Delectable Mountains
Life seems to have little to offer Devin Donahue at 22. Graduation thrust him out of college against his will, and the love of his life just left him to marry his older brother. With a broken heart and no direction to speak of, Devin pounces on his first opportunity to skip town—an invitation to help run a summer theater in Colorado with his high-school sweetheart.
Upon arrival, Devin is shoved into a torrential melodrama of barroom brawls, outrageous love triangles and the worst performance of Hedda Gabler ever produced. He tangles with a wide cast of wild characters, including a maniacal political dramatist, an emaciated director riddled with d.t.’s and a bipolar actor whose luck—and money—are about to run out. All the while Devin must stumble through his own awkward attempts at romance—and somehow manage to grow up in the process.
Filled with poignancy, humor and eccentric revelations, The Delectable Mountains is a romp through the melodramatic tumult of a young man’s coming of age in the summer of love, 1968.
PRAISE FOR THE DELECTABLE MOUNTAINS
“A superbly stylish author whose books deserve the wildest audience.”
The New Yorker
“Malone has an imagination like Kafka’s—Mixed with that of Ernie Kovacs.”
The Raleigh News and Observer
Uncivil Seasons
The wife of the local senator is found beaten to death in her luxurious home. Her nephew, the elegant Detective Justin Savile, and his wise-cracking partner Cuddy Magnum take the case. The powerful families involved believe Savile is the perfect person to solve the murder and be discreet about whatever he discovers—but they underestimate him. As Savile looks into his troubled past while falling in love with a young union worker from a very different background, he uncovers secrets that the town leaders have tried desperately to hide.
PRAISE FOR UNCIVIL SEASONS
“Vivid…compelling…beautifully rendered…An excellent novel…with two of the most memorable police detectives ever to appear in mystery fiction.”
The New York Times Book Review
“Intimate and believable…jauntily ironic to downright hilarious…UNCIVIL SEASONS is an examination of the human condition in the form of a murder mystery…Malone is a wonderful writer.”
San Francisco Chronicle
“A vividly drawn ambiance…a stylish gift for language…tender and believable…the characters come alive.”
Washington Post Book World
“As with Dickens…we come to know of the pains and joys of living the human condition in a deeper way…if you could imagine either Eudora Welty or Flannery O’Connor developing a top-flight murder mystery, you’d have UNCIVIL SEASONS.”
New Haven Register
Time’s Witness
Street-smart and straightforward police chief Cuddy Mangum and his refined homicide detective Justin Savile V are determined to keep their town’s cultural, political and racial divisions stable…even peaceful. But when a young black activist is murdered while in the process of fighting for his brother’s freedom from death row, the fragile social stability of Hillston, North Carolina, starts to crumble.
Thrust into a dirty political campaign and torn between his ethics and his love for the wealthy and beautiful wife of an up-and-coming politician, Cuddy must uncover the secrets that lie in his own backyard.
From high-powered and elegant country club ballrooms to dark and dangerous bar-room corners, Malone weaves a mystery of plot and place where the differences between good and evil sometimes become indistinct.
PRAISE FOR TIME'S WITNESS
“Gripping…as entertaining as Presumed Innocent, as resonant as To Kill a Mockingbird.”
Booklist
“Malone knows his Piedmont the way William Faulkner knew his Yoknapatawpha, but he’s much more fun to read!”
Philadelphia Inquirer
“Malone is at the peak of his powers with TIME’S WITNESS…a very, very funny book, in the same way that The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn—also about race relations and class consciousness—is a very funny book.”
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“TIME’S WITNESS is to be relished for its flavor, variety and essential validity. Like Charles Dickens—the comparison isn’t farfetched—the author isn’t afraid of stretching the truth to encompass it.”
San Francisco Chronicle
“It is seldom you meet a hero who is as appealing as Cuddy Mangum…Strikingly original…TIME’S WITNESS can take its place along with such other novels as To Kill a Mockingbird and All the King’s Men as a classic work.”
St. Petersburg Times
First Lady
A woman is savagely mutilated, tagged and addressed to Lt. Justin Savile V and Police Chief Cuddy R. Mangum. Hillston, North Carolina, has a serial killer on its hands, dubbed the "Guess Who Killer" by a voracious press. While the city lives in fear, the media and the mayor demand answers. Savile and Mangum find themselves being taunted and stalked by the killer. Worse, they have no leads.
A bestseller with a driving plot, yet written with literary style and substance, First Lady is a novel you will want to read and savor yourself and share with a friend. Continuing the series begun with lauded novels Time’s Witness and Uncivil Seasons, Michael Malone’s return proves a thrilling success.
PRAISE FOR FIRST LADY
“Talk about waiting a long time: it’s been a dozen years since Michael Malone’s last novel…the results are stellar. Malone creates a gallery of Southern portraits with compassion, humor and more than a little blood. Highly recommended.”
Chicago Tribune
“An award-caliber tale of murder, despair and backroom deals...gorgeous writing. Is there anyone better than a southerner at the top of his form? Start buffing up those awards now.”
Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“A story that moves toward a wonderfully satisfying payoff that we should have seen coming all along, with the power to make us want to pick up the book and start reading all over again.”
Alan Cheuse, NPR’s All Things Considered
“[An] always readable blend of police procedural and social comedy...Malone sets loose his collection of eccentrics and lets them do their worst, alternately horrified and amused by the varieties of mischief they get up to in the best Southern tradition, but with a self-consciously modern twist.”
The New York Times Book Review
“Contemporary American crime fiction has no better stylist than Mr. Malone.”
Wall Street Journal
“A lady worth courting.”
People Magazine (Page-turner of the week)
“I’m happy to report that First Lady has everything that Uncivil Seasons had—including the same narrator, who’s like a deep, rich tea steeped in Southern roots. This is a terrific, rush-out-and-buy-right-away book.”
The Baltimore Sun
“Savile and Mangum remain great company, the mystery element is strong, and Malone has lost none of his uncommon ability to mix humor and heartbreak.”
Los Angeles Times
“Combining mystery, morality and even comedy, the author has created a novel that keeps the pages turning….Suspenseful, intriguing and entertaining, First Lady is a worthy successor to Mr. Malone’s previous successes.”
The Dallas Morning News
Handling Sin
On the Ides of March, our hero, Raleigh Whittier Hayes (forgetful husband, baffled father, prosperous insurance agent and leading citizen of Thermopylae, North Carolina), learns that his father has discharged himself from the hospital, taken all his money out of the bank and, with a young black female mental patient, vanished in a yellow Cadillac convertible. Left behind is a mysterious list of seven outrageous tasks that Raleigh must perform in order to rescue his father and his inheritance.
And so Raleigh and fat Mingo Sheffield (his irrepressibly loyal friend) set off on an uproarious contemporary treasure hunt through a landscape of unforgettable characters, falling into adventures worthy of Tom Jones and Huck Finn. A moving parable of human love and redemption, Handling Sin is Michael Malone’s comic masterpiece.
PRAISE FOR HANDLING SIN
“While comparisons will be made to A Confederacy of Dunces…the humor of HANDLING SIN is superior…Mr. Malone’s twists and turns and surprises are downright phenomenal, verging on genius…weighed in the scales of laughter, HANDLING SIN is a hilarious success. It is worth reading just to collect the full kernels of fine humor which are much thicker in this book than pecans in a Georgia fruitcake.”
The New York Times Book Review
“Michael Malone exhibits the balance and showmanship of a champion acrobat, parodying every square inch of his native South even as he pays affectionate homage to the characters of the place and its people. HANDLING SIN is a comic odyssey…constantly sharp and funny…a KNICK-KNACK GEM-CRACK HIGH-TIME CIRCUS, with intriguing sideshows, and an abiding spirit of fun…This novel is some show.”
Newsday
“This madcap book bubbles with frenzy from the first pages… with a wink to Cervantes and Dickens—as well as the Marx Brothers…a highly refreshing tale in which Malone has managed to make the bizarre hilariously credible.”
Publishers Weekly
“Terribly funny, emotionally engaging and almost impossible to set aside…a heartwarming tour de force.”
Newsweek
“Michael Malone has done it again…Non-stop laughs…wonderfully absurd adventures.”
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“With this immense, joyous novel…Malone has written the best, most vibrantly comic book of his career…A delightful book that readers will want to savor.”
Kirkus Reviews
“HANDLING SIN is a great big endearing picaresque novel….It’s a parable of love and reconciliation; it’s also a celebration of plain old fun…a delightful book.”
Washington Post
“HANDLING SIN is terrific…large spirited, beautifully crafted and extremely funny…dozens of vivid, eccentric creatures…a dazzling display of caricature and high energy farce…grand and lovely.”
The Nation
Foolscap
Young drama professor Theo Ryan’s life is turned upside down when he meets Joshua "Ford" Rexford—America’s most acclaimed playwright and the most impossible and most talented man he’s ever encountered. Because of Ford’s influence, a journey begins that encompasses quirky scholars, bickering university faculty, the Renaissance giant Sir Walter Raleigh and, of course, ingenious plays.
PRAISE FOR FOOLSCAP
“Satisfying, deeply pleasurable…brilliant and entertaining. One remembers Mr. Malone’s idiosyncratic creations the way one remembers those of another brilliant social caricaturist, Charles Dickens.”
The New York Times Book Review
“Uproarious…a lot of fun.”
The Washington Post Book World
“Malone…delights the reader with his witty eye for the kind of detail that proclaims with humor and confidence, ‘This is true!’…Malone achieves a depth of character not usually found in such a comic novel. FOOLSCAP, the vessel for as much droll hilarity as the early fiction of Evelyn Waugh, is a touching novel.”
Los Angeles Times Book Review
“This fine and funny novel should not be read in haste. If it is, the reader will miss jokes, references and even subtle significant clues, which would be both a loss to the reader and an insult to the author’s wit and skill.”
The Atlantic Monthy
“Ivy-choked groves of academe and over cultivated fields of creative endeavor are pruned to riotous effect in this rollicking satire…FOOLSCAP…will keep delighted readers guessing, laughing and long applauding.”
Publishers Weekly
Red Clay, Blue Cadillac
A page-turning collection of short stories, in each of which the main character is a belle of the South whose talents include a penchant for deceit, betrayal, seduction and sometimes murder. Written in the author’s wry and masterful voice, these evocative stories are infused with all the peculiar customs, ironies and humor so special to the South.
PRAISE FOR RED CLAY, BLUE CADILLAC
“Wry, vivid and classic in structure, these stories are a pleasure to read....Malone infuses all of these stories with his trademark wit and distinctive voice. A winning collection.”
Booklist
“Some of the best stories to come out of the South in years.”
Publishers Weekly
“A penetrating look into the values and mores of the New South.”
Kirkus Reviews
“Rules, for good or for mischief, are broken throughout Red Clay, Blue Cadillac. Michael Malone brilliantly affirms that they were made to be.”
Denver Post
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