Saul and Patsy

Acclaim for Charles Baxter’s SAUL and PATSY

“A tale of generations at war and the troubled underside of placid Midwestern life. . abounding in irony and wit, and reminiscent of Bernard Malamud and Saul Bellow.”

— San Francisco Chronicle

“Baxter reminds us that there is no regional monopoly on virtue and understanding, and no easy comforts for either self-appointed worldsavers or smug populists. And for all those hard lessons, Baxter also manages to deliver Saul and Patsy into something astonishingly close to a happy ending. Such indeed is the glory of love — and of fully realized fiction.”

— The Washington Post Book World

“One of our most gifted writers.”

— Chicago Tribune

“Thoughts sprawl delightfully, insanely, worryingly and sometimes brilliantly from Saul. . Funny and grown-up and generous.”

— The New York Times Book Review

“Charles Baxter’s novel Saul and Patsy is what it appears to be — a love story. But underneath its placid surface broils biting social commentary, a tale of lost teenagers adrift in a culture with no moral center.”

— The Oregonian

“Saul and Patsy [is] a penetrating, surprisingly funny meditation on the dynamics of community belonging and acceptance.”

— The New York Times

“[Baxter] weaves magic into everyday life as if it were mere coincidence. Clark Kent is to Superman as Charles Baxter is to his writing.”

— Los Angeles Times

“It is rare that a novel, even a good one, manages to evoke contemporary life without being self-conscious about it. But that is what Baxter achieves here.”

— The New Yorker

“Watch out for the ‘quiet Midwestern’ tag on [Baxter’s] writing: That’s the iceberg you will strike. There is nothing simple in his universe, and nothing solely on the surface. Baxter’s intelligence and humor are submerged, and dangerous. You know — something like yours.”

— Detroit Free Press

“Baxter. . make[s] the mundane seem marvelous, the everyday seem extraordinary. . A clever and empathetic writer.”

— The Capital Times

“On almost every page at least one sentence would make me stop and shake my head in amazement and wonder.”

— Logan Browning, Houston Chronicle

“Both hilarious and poignant.”

— The Dallas Morning News

“Baxter defies the laws of publishing gravity: He went up and has yet to come down. . Baxter’s new novel is just as bright and fully imagined, just as energetic as anything that came before.”

— The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“Brilliantly exploring the emotional intricacies of a young marriage, Charles Baxter’s latest novel, Saul and Patsy, uncannily exposes the least flattering side of human desire while celebrating the inexplicable power that love has over our lives.”

— Rocky Mountain News

“Baxter’s store of figurative language and rich, apt description is essentially boundless, and he draws generously from it for all the characters.”

— St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“More proof that Baxter is one of the best novelists anywhere. Every line packs a double punch — what it apparently means and what it really means.”

— Fort Worth Star-Telegram