Critically-acclaimed poet Nick Flynn turns to prose with a look at his own life during his twentysomething years while working at a homeless shelter in Boston, where his path crosses with that of his troubled and estranged father.
Critic Reviews
|
Outstanding
|
San Francisco Chronicle Stephen Elliott
Stunningly beautiful... a near-perfect work of literature.
|
|
Outstanding
|
Library Journal Felicity D. Walsh
Hilarious and heartbreaking by turns, it has been compared Conroy's Stop- Time and David Eggers's Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius but is really in a class by itself. [1 Sep 2004, p.149]
|
|
Favorable
|
Los Angeles Times Thomas Curwen
Told with energy, critical reflection and sensitivity, [Another Bullshit Night...] is less a memoir than a study of one of America's darker conundrums: homelessness. [10 Oct 2004]
|
|
Favorable
|
Publishers Weekly
Although it's depressing, the book never seems hopeless, because readers know the author has succeeded at doing what his father only pretended to do: write, and write well. [21 Jun 2004, p.52]
|
|
Favorable
|
The Spectator Alexander Masters
A remarkable memoir: uneasy, evocative, sometimes funny.
|
|
Favorable
|
The New York Times Book Review Vendela Vida
A potent, distinctive autobiography.
|
|
Favorable
|
Village Voice Darren Reidy
However built for payoff the plotline is, Flynn's novelistic sense of emotional distance, omniscient temperament, and grounded prose help us keep our heads above its mucky water.
|
|
Favorable
|
Booklist Allison Block
Readers of memoirists Frank Conroy and Tobias Wolff will relish Flynn's pungent account of two rudderless souls who navigate their way back into each other's lives. [Aug 2004, p.1891]
|
|
Favorable
|
Boston Globe Kate Bolick
In place of a straight narrative he builds a spine of interlocking memories and fragments that, for all its gentle overlapping, still pushes the story forward page by page.
|
|
Favorable
|
Entertainment Weekly Troy Patterson
Unlike the pity parties that too many memoirs have become, ...Suck City has no maudlin gestures, no ''inspirational'' tones, no hysterics; it stares down emptiness with clear, dry eyes.
|
|
Favorable
|
Houston Chronicle Fritz Lanham
An unsparing, unsentimental, often darkly comic piece of work.
|
|
Favorable
|
Kirkus Reviews
The voice here is boiled just right: tough, articulate, mindful, without self-pity. [15 Jun 2004, p.566]
|
|
Mixed
|
Washington Post Michael Mewshaw
Although no autobiography can be accurate in every minute detail and Flynn, an accomplished poet, deserves his license, there's an implicit truth pact with the reader that can't be squared with the holes in this narrative.
|
|
Mixed
|
The Guardian Christopher Priest
The style of this book is its main achievement. The problem with it is the subject, which no matter how well it is contrived as literary journalism, remains banal, depressing and sordid.
|
|
