In this debut novel from Bezos (the wife of Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos), a Sacramento civil engineer finds his life beginning to crumble after an earthquake sets off a series of events in his personal and work lives.
Critic Reviews
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Outstanding
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Daily Telegraph Neel Mukhergee
Bezos scales the treacherous cliffs of the human heart with a wisdom, ease and empathetic understanding that most writers struggle to attain in a lifetime.
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Outstanding
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Los Angeles Times Susan Salter Reynolds
Bezos is a smooth and terrifying writer, incisive like Denis Johnson, a noticer of the tiniest moods and gestures in relationships. [11 Sep 2005]
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Favorable
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San Francisco Chronicle Debra Spark
[The Testing of Luther Albright] succeeds in its depiction of the damage a withholding person can do. It offers, too, insightful glimpses of office life; subtle scenes of unarticulated conflict; intriguing moments of familial deception; astute psychological observations; precise, elegant writing; and so on.
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Favorable
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The New York Times Book Review Kate Bolick
The slow pileup of events takes on an unexpected, if mild, urgency.
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Favorable
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The Onion A.V. Club Noel Murray
[Bezos] makes the meaning of "lost" devastatingly plain.
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Favorable
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The Independent Lucy Rouse
A compelling portrait of the incremental disappointments and failures to communicate that can dull any close relationship.
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Favorable
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The Observer Hephzibah Anderson
[Bezos] is not afraid of silence, and this gives her streamlined fable its power.
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Favorable
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Entertainment Weekly Jennifer Reese
Bezos lays bare the inner life of the repressed American Everyman in her exquisite, excruciating portrait of Luther, a buttoned-up government engineer who builds dams in California's Central Valley.
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Favorable
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Library Journal Susanne Wells
Within the emotional minutiae, Bezos drops in some breathtakingly truthful observations. [15 Jun 2005, p. 56]
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Favorable
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Kirkus Reviews
Bezos's finely calibrated first novel seethes with ironies.
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Favorable
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Publishers Weekly
Bezos... captures the extraordinary in the ordinary, revealing a subtle imagination and a startling talent for naturalism.
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