Tumbledown

"A winning ensemble cast of therapists and patients make stabs at sanity in Robert Boswell's mordantly funny novel Tumbledown." --Vanity Fair "A complicated, nuanced look at human experience and the insights into that experience contributed by people of varying kinds of intelligence." --The Washington Post "A moving and often darkly hilarious meditation on sanity." --Houston Chronicle "A deft twining of irony and insight on nearly every page . . . Tumbledown wryly mines the heartache in emotional disturbances, some present from birth and the rest brought on by the business of living." --The New York Times "Within a suspenseful plot spiked with love triangles and flashbacks, Boswell renders each complex psyche and scene with magnificent precision and penetrating vision, fine-tuning our definitions of disorder and healing and deepening our perception of what it is to be normal, what it is to be human." --Booklist (starred review) "Like a funnier One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, this story focuses on a therapist and his wild yet well-meaning patients, bumbling through life, trying to make sense of the world and one another." --O, The Oprah Magazine, Ten Titles to Pick Up Now "Boswell can write the most refreshingly old-fashioned kind of narrative: one that evokes deep sympathy for all its characters . . . All the novel's characters know that in adulthood they're supposed to settle for 'what could pass for a normal life. Maybe it was a C- sort of life, but that was a passing grade.' Still, they want to keep hope, wonder and love in their lives . . . Without a whiff of sentimentality, he shows exactly how elusive such balance can be." --The New York Times Book Review

About the Author :
Robert Boswell is the author of eleven books, including The Heyday of the Insensitive Bastards. He shares the Cullen Chair in Creative Writing at the University of Houston with his wife, Antonya Nelson. They live in Houston, Texas; Telluride, Colorado; and Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Review :
Praise for "Tumbledown" "A winning ensemble cast of therapists and patients make stabs at sanity in Robert Boswell's mordantly funny novel "Tumbledown."" --"Vanity Fair""Boswell can write the most refreshingly old-fashioned kind of narrative: one that evokes deep sympathy for all its characters. . . . All the novel's characters know that in adulthood they're supposed to settle for what could pass for a normal life. Maybe it was a C- sort of life, but that was a passing grade. Still, they want to keep hope, wonder and love in their lives. . . . Without a whiff of sentimentality, he shows exactly how elusive such balance can be." --"The New York Times Book Review""A deft twining of irony and insight on nearly every page. . . . "Tumbledown" wryly mines the heartache in emotional disturbances, some present from birth and the rest brought on by the business of living." --"The New York Times" "A complicated, nuanced look at human experience and the insights into that experience contributed by people of varying kinds of intelligence. Oh, it's funny, too. . . . What most enlivens "Tumbledown" is the moving inner life that Boswell imagines for his mentally disabled characters. " --"The Washington Post""["Tumbledown"] blossoms in surprising ways. . . . It's hilarious, sad, messy, and often unintentionally insightful. Boswell manages to treat each of his lost souls--even the most shabby, offensive, and insane among them--with affection and understanding. . . .He's writing excellent books about the complexities, frailties, and triumphs of human relationships in the modern age." --"The Daily Beast""When most of us think of today's great American novel, we think of Franzen's "Freedom "or Egan's "A Visit from the Goon Squad"--sprawling stories that comment on contemporary society as we live it. "Tumbledown," Robert Boswell's latest, is just such a book--and one you'll stay up until 3 a.m. reading. . . . Boswell is a writer who can see the humanity, and yes, even beauty, in Praise for "Tumbledown" "Robert Boswell has always been an extremely appealing writer: uncommonly intuitive, a sparkling observer, graceful yet surprising sentence-to-sentence; and always in pursuit of important complexity in human behavior--a rare gift, which makes his writing increasingly essential." --Richard Ford"This is a crowded, tender, and captivating novel, the experience of which brings to the fore how reading itself can replenish our love of the imperfect beauty of humanity." --"Publishers Weekly," starred review"If you read "Tumbledown" in public, beware: Boswell's story is barkingly, snort-spurtingly, people-give-you-looks funny. Yet its humor is the most generous kind, uncynical and unsentimental, and woven through an ensemble story so large-hearted it keeps bursting its narrative seams. The result is a brilliant, humane, engrossing argument for how infinitely whacked and contingent life can be, and therefore how desperately we need one another to survive. I finished it with a long contented sigh, thinking, this is why I love reading novels." --David Wroblewski, author of "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle""[An] absorbing tale of modern chaos steeped in moral issues." --"Library Journal""Boswell displays immense talent for characterization and observation . . . An impressive work." --"Kirkus Reviews" Praise for Robert Boswell: "Boswell is capable of calibrating the blur of emotion with exquisite precision." --"The Boston Globe " "Often funny and always electrifying . . . One can't help but be reminded of the skill and grace of [Denis] Johnson." --"The Kansas City Star " "[Boswell] shows a sensitive and comprehensive understanding of the quirks that can shake a person off course: from fear, passivity and pride to external knocks and dings that are easier to spot, harder to fix." --"The New York Times Book Review" "A moving portrait of a family both torn apart and united by grief." --"The New Yorker" "Utterly compelling . . . B Praise for Robert Boswell "Boswell is capable of calibrating the blur of emotion with exquisite precision." --"The Boston Globe " "Often funny and always electrifying . . . One can't help but be reminded of the skill and grace of [Denis] Johnson." --"The Kansas City Star " "[Boswell] shows a sensitive and comprehensive understanding of the quirks that can shake a person off course: from fear, passivity and pride to external knocks and dings that are easier to spot, harder to fix." --"The New York Times Book Review" "A moving portrait of a family both torn apart and united by grief." --"The New Yorker" "Utterly compelling . . . Boswell moves from the absurd to the tragic without comment, excuse, or explanation." --"The Washington Post Book World" "Stunning . . . Cross Anne Tyler with Michael Chabon and you'd get a cast something like the one Boswell has bred." --"Milwaukee Journal Sentinel"