Thursday, September 07, 2006

Julius Winsome pre-pub roundup (4 for 4!)


I was looking through the website's stats the other day and noticed that a lot of people have been landing on the blog after searching for Gerard Donovan or his new novel Julius Winsome, and that's not at all surprising given great pre-publication buzz that has surrounded the book, which you can sample below (click on the publication name for more of the review). Can't wait for the book to go on sale on October 19th to see more of the same rave reviews...
--John Mark

"Donovan's command of language is astonishingly precise, eerily reflecting Julius's disarmingly mild-mannered pathology as it ascribes no more importance to the cold-blooded shooting of a hunter than to going into town for groceries. Finely tooled outsider fiction, as chilling as it is ultimately humane."
--Kirkus Reviews

"Winsome is a complex and powerfully realized fictional creation--a thoughtful, kind man driven to psychological disorder and violence by the casual cruelty of his neighbors. Donovan depicts his wounded humanity and psychological distress with great compassion and subtlety and vividly draws both the supporting characters and the bleak, foreboding Maine landscape. This novel of great emotional impact is enthusiastically recommended."
--Library Journal

"If Jim Thompson had written literary fiction, he might have concocted a novel similar to this one. ...Julius exerts a strong pull on the imagination's darker corners."
--Booklist

"Donovan's poetic, well-crafted third novel...shows how violence can infect and take over a person's life. ...Winsome's descent into anger, sadness, perhaps madness, begins when a deer hunter deliberately kills [his dog] Hobbes. From that moment, Winsome's need for revenge grows rapidly and irrationally. Readers will sympathize with him every step of the way."
--Publishers Weekly

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