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The
Exquisite
A Novel by Laird Hunt
Reviews
Book Sense Notable Book
Believer Book Awards,
Writer Survey List
Caled Wilson, Davis-Kidd Booksellers, Book
Sense Nomination:
“A creepy, tangled tale
about the escapades of an unbalanced thief in post-9/11
New York City. Beautifully written.”
Believer:
“A
great many writers aspire to write the ultimate post-9/11
novel. Laird Hunt may actually have pulled it off with The Exquisite.”
Bookforum:
“An
unusually engrossing book. . . . The novel's pleasure
is that it forces us to stretch our speculative muscles
further than we're used to in pursuing questions to
which, as is often true in life, there are no clear
answers.”
Village Voice:
“The Exquisite belongs to a rare class
of literary fiction that puts a premium on mood while
delivering a surprisingly compelling read. . . . its
narrative thrust is stronger than Paul Auster's noir-ish New
York Trilogy or André Breton's ode to
the nocturnal, Nadja . And it possesses a
cast of characters right out of a David Lynch film.”
Time Out New York:
“Hunt's
slippery new psychodrama, The Exquisite ,
fits in comfortably with works by steady-handed experimenters
such as Kelly Link, Tsipi Keller and Paul Auster. .
. . But this potboiler comes wrapped in an enigma.
. . . For all its funny business, the book amplifies
a common and unsettling sensation: It provocatively
hints at an understanding that lies just beyond your
grasp.”
Review of Contemporary Fiction:
“An engaging read. . . . Hunt has crafted a genuine
mystery novel, shifting our gaze from dénouement
to the beauty of mystery itself: suffering and pleasure,
without definition.”
Stranger:
“Hunt
has crafted a finely tuned miniature that doubles and
redoubles on itself until you realize that the point
of the whole thing is its unsteadiness, which by the
end begins to feel almost comforting.”
Chicago Review:
“Deftly
handles the aftermath of 9/11.”
KGB Bar Lit:
“The Exquisite is
an excellent exploration of a shattered life. Hunt's
two compellingly imagined shards suggest so many others
in such a way as to almost command the reader to question
his or her own sense of just what has happened in the
last five years.”
Rain Taxi:
“The Exquisite is
both a response to 9/11 and a paean to Manhattan—especially
to its seedy, shadowy, cramped, and unhinged Lower
East Side, where anything can and does happen. . .
. Here is an extraordinarily intelligent, goofy, pained,
energetic, gorgeously written work that insists on
letting the existential unsteadiness that defines our
era shape its very rhythms, warps, textual flexures.”
PopMatters:
“An
exceptionally well-written and well-constructed story,
combining hard-boiled noir with David Lynch-style storytelling
. . . Hunt is, and simultaneously is not, evoking a
small portion of the feeling that 9/11 has left people
with, and like it is for most other people, that small
portion is with all of us, still provoking questions.”
Cadillac Cicatrix:
“Reading The Exquisite is
an odd and beautiful experience. . . . As we turn the
pages we find ourselves artfully escorted by twists
and turns, up one alley and down the next.”
Fantasy Magazine:
“A fascinating example of how the fantastic can intersect
with the ‘experimental' in fiction.”
Booklist:
“An
edgy and labyrinthine tale of longing, madness, and
death.”
Publishers Weekly:
“Intensely
cerebral . . . this noir labyrinth captures the post-9/11
gestalt.”
Library Journal:
“[A]
wild literary trip.”
Kirkus Reviews:
“Lapidary
dialogue, sharp observation and penchant for enlivening
character with a few deft strokes . . . An author to
watch.”
David Gutowski, Largehearted Boy:
“Shocking,
intellectual, eerie, and wonderfully written, The
Exquisite is my favorite literary thriller
of the year.”
Andrew Ervin, Bookslut:
“A
playful, noir-ish thriller of ideas.”
Bud Parr, Chekhov's Mistress:
“If
you liked Charlie Kaufman's Eternal Sunshine
of the Spotless Mind or Alejandro Amenábar's Open
Your Eyes (remade as Vanilla Sky ),
then I'd bet you'll like Laird Hunt's latest novel The
Exquisite .”
Sarah Weinman, Confessions of an Idiosyncratic
Mind:
“This is so, so my kind of book. A broken young man
gets mixed up with a shadowy underground group—headed
by the mysterious Aris Kindt—to perform staged murders
upon those hoping to feel something, anything in the
aftermath of 9/11. And that's only scratching the surface
of this dreamlike phantasm of a novel that perches
itself on the edge of a surface brimming with uncertainty
and even madness.”
Matthew Cheney, Mumpsimus:
“The Exquisite melded
itself so well into my days that the reading of it
has become an inextricable part of my memory . . .
not only an artifact or a story, but a companion made
of words.”
Darby M. Dixon III, Thumbs Drives and Oven
Clocks:
“One of the most enjoyable and thrilling
books I've read since I started this blog.”
Dustin Kurtz, McNally Jackson:
“I
loved it. Set in the East Village, with scenes taking
place on our own block, Hunt's grimy little tale obsesses
over bodies, death, naming, the Dutch, and many, many
fish. The main character is one of the most endearing
gentlemen I've had the opportunity to meet in recent
fiction.”
Dave, Words Worth Books blog:
“I'm
really into Laird hunt's third novel . . . a delicious
little work.”
Powells.com Staff Pick:
“A compellingly
odd novel, definitely worth reading.”
Shelley Jackson:
“As fun to read as
Chandler, but spookier. A noir koan, in a New York
designed by Escher.”
Also
available by this author:
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