Edisto

Praise

Praise for EDISTO by Padgett Powell

“Edisto is a startling book, full of new sights, sounds, and ways of feeling. Mr. Powell weaves wonderful tapestries from ordinary speech; his people, black and white, whether speaking to each other or past each other, tell us things that we never heard before. The book is subtle, daring, and brilliant.” —Donald Barthelme

“Sly, pungent, lyric, funny, and unlikely to be forgotten.” —R. Z. Sheppard, Time

“Edisto is a truly remarkable first novel, both as a narrative and in its extraordinary use of language. It reminds one of The Catcher in the Rye, but it’s better—sharper, funnier, more poignant.” —Walker Percy

“Walker Percy is quoted on the novel’s dust jacket as saying that it ‘reminds one of The Catcher in the Rye, but it’s better—sharper, funnier, more poignant.’ For once, a dust jacket is right.” —Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post Book World

“Edisto is distinctly a tour de force. . . . Some turn of phrase, some flash of humor, some freshly observed detail, some accurately rendered perception of a child’s pain or a child’s amazement transfigures nearly every page.” —Robert Towers, The New York Review of Books

“Simons Manigault is brother to all literary adolescents—Mailer’s D.J., Salinger’s Holden Caulfield, Joyce’s Stephen Dedalus. . . . [Edisto] is a sparkling read, so full of an energetic intelligence, inventiveness, love of language and love of people. . . . Padgett Powell is an extravagantly talented writer.” —Ron Loewinsohn, The New York Times Book Review

“A remarkable book . . . There is not a line that simply slides by; each, in one way or another, turns things to a fresh and unexpected angle. There are splendid things said.” —Richard Eder, Los Angeles Times Book Review

“Powell creates a language that captures rhythms and reflections that are at once original and true.” —Peter S. Prescott, Newsweek

“When asked for a list of the best American writers of the younger generation, I invariably put the name of Padgett Powell at the top.” —Saul Bellow

“Rereading Edisto fifteen to twenty years later, I reacted exactly the same way: caught in the headlights and grateful for not being run over. Line for line, the best first novel I’ve ever read.” —Pete Dexter

“A modern master of first–person narrative.”” —Tampa Bay Times