Useless Miracle

Praise

“Just a cunning party trick? Or a true 21st Century miracle? It is a nice little riddle and, as the plot thickens, George [Entmen] proves such an engagingly self-deprecating narrator that you want to know where his strange odyssey will end.“ —The Daily Mail

“You might think it’d be difficult to contemplate philosophical matters with your nose four inches from the carpet, but Barry Schechter, writing with an incisive eye, a spry mind, and a towering heart, not only pilots us through a turbulent set of Big Questions but even arrives at the answers, arguing sublimely for the value of living a dignified life in hilariously undignified times.” —Jeremy P. Bushnell, author of The Weirdness

“One of the funniest novels I’ve ever read. I dare you not to love this book – not to hoot out loud at every page, nor marvel at the novel’s poignant social satire, genuine warmth, and careening twists and turns. Useless Miracle is a necessary wonder.” —Christopher Boucher, author of How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive

“Schechter deftly balances lush and descriptive prose with humorous dialogue, creating a complex plot from a mundane miracle and a cast of witty characters.”—The Arkansas International

Praise for Barry Schechter’s The Blindfold Test

“Barry Schechter regards the dirty tricks with which life undoes his protagonist with a kind of glee. We are reminded that Kafka was supposed to have held his sides laughing while he read friends his stories.” —Lore Segal, author of Half the Kingdom 

“The Blindfold Test is a beautiful and terrifying pleasure, a metaphysically witty novel rich with melancholy joie de vivre.” —Matthew Sharpe, author of The Sleeping Father 

“Schechter . . . skews the horrible world to just the right kind of acceptable lunacy.” —Han Ong, author of The Disinherited

“The kind of novel Woody Allen and Hunter S. Thompson would’ve written together if they could’ve gotten along … That Schechter can combine HST’s gonzo morality and pacing with Allen’s deadpan is almost too much. But still, we couldn’t get enough.”  —Jonathan Messinger, TimeOut Chicago
 
“Part-comedy, part-thriller . . . The Blindfold Test is blanketed with paranoia, quite Kafkaesque . . .” —New City Lit

“The slapstick comedy . . . never entirely drowns out an undercurrent of hard-won paranoia. And the best thing that Schechter does, the thing that earns his book a deserved double take, happens when you hear the conspiratorial whispers yourself.” —Philadelphia City Paper

“A funny book with lots of local color.” —Chicago Reader

“A playful and thought-provoking book about how—and whether—we accept our fate.” —The Second Pass