About the Book
Bobby Clark is just sixteen when he drops out of school to follow his big brother, Jim, into the jewelry business. Bobby idolizes Jim and is in awe of Jim's girlfriend, Lisa, the best saleswoman at the Fort Worth Deluxe Diamond Exchange.
What follows is the story of a young man's education in two of the oldest human passions: love and money. Through a dark, sharp lens, Clancy Martin captures the luxury business in all its exquisite vulgarity and outrageous fraud, finding in the diamond-and-watch trade a metaphor for the American soul at work.
About the Author :
Clancy Martin is the acclaimed author of the novel How to Sell, as well as numerous books on philosophy, and has translated works by Friedrich Nietzsche, Søren Kierkegaard, and other philosophers. A Guggenheim Fellow, his writing has appeared in the New Yorker, New York, The Atlantic, Harper's, Esquire, New Republic, Lapham's Quarterly, The Believer, and the Paris Review. He is a professor of philosophy at the University of Missouri in Kansas City and Ashoka University in New Delhi. He is a recovering alcoholic and the survivor of more than ten suicide attempts.
Richard Powers has published thirteen novels. He is a MacArthur Fellow and received the National Book Award. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Overstory, and Bewilderment was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.
Review :
"How to Sell is outrageous, theatrical and slicker than oil...a gem of a story."
-- "Newsweek"
"How to Sell is, with memorably dark comedy, a virtual handbook on fraud...is a compelling setting for Martin's propulsive storytelling. His narration feels cinematic, the sets and scenery popping off the page."
-- "Elle"
"How to Sell, Clancy Martin's sly debut novel, is a lesson in double dealing--in business and in romance...This is one of those books that makes you slap your forehead and marvel at the intricate lies that ensnare the unwary, even as you check to make sure your wallet and your wits are right where you left them."
-- "O, The Oprah Magazine"
"A crackling debut...a bravura catalog of the scams and rackets that make up the luxury jewelry trade...Like a James Ellroy novel for people who read Spinoza's Ethics."
-- "Salon.com"
"Sexy, funny and devastating...like watching one man's American dream turn into a soul-sucking nightmare."
-- "Publishers Weekly (starred review)"
"A bleak, funny, unforgiving novel...about how we buy and sell everything--merchandise, drugs, sex, trust, power, peace of mind, religion, friendship, and each other...A genuinely fresh, disconcerting voice."
-- "Zadie Smith"
"A darkly bewitching first novel."
-- "New York Review of Books"
"A noirish blast of a novel."
-- "Rolling Stone"
"A tender yet hardboiled coming-of-age story, a vivid, sometimes philosophical portrait of yearning and greed, of human love and human spoilage--all of it mirrored in stripped-down, addictive prose. Clancy Martin has written a scary, funny blaze of a book."
-- "Sam Lipsyte"
"A timely meditation on greed and the American Dream."
-- "Men.style.com"
"Dirty, greatly original, and very hard to stop reading."
-- "Jonathan Franzen"
"It's a lean and mean book, perfect for those who distrust all this recent talk about change. The kind of novel--cool and dark--that goes with you to the beach and then keeps you thinking at night."
-- "Esquire"
"Martin has a poetic sensibility...He gives a mesmerizing appeal to the setting of an alexandrite necklace and the delicate artistry involved in shaping a diamond."
-- "New Yorker"
"Martin writes with no-nonsense punch, detailing the schemes--fake certificates, 'antiques'--shady jewelers have been running for centuries...By the time you're hooked on the book's insidious plot twists...you're blissfully unaware you're downing a metaphor: No commission can buy you a soul."
-- "GQ"
"Sex, of course, may sell, but Martin's wicked take on money, the jewelry business and American passions could prove to have multiple pleasures."
-- "Kansas City Star"
"The feeling you get from the moment you open Clancy Martin's superb novel is one of inevitability. This is the inevitability of truth-telling, of tragedy, of the setup to a good joke, and, very possibly, the inevitability of the classic."
-- "Benjamin Kunkel"
