by You’d think I want the world to end, and maybe sometimes it does feel like we’ve gone so far wrong the only thing that might bring us to our senses is a worldwide reboot. Screw-it, we need a do-over, bring on the apocalypse. But whatever lurks in my dark, cataclysm-drawn heart, I love end-of-the-world literature.
The Guardian came out with the first review for my friend Sandra Newman’s dystopic novel The Country of Ice Cream Star. It’s being released in the UK first, and you can buy it from Amazon UK now. (It comes out here next year.)
I’ll cut to the chase. They loved it. “By the last page I was emotionally battered but euphoric: the book had held me so effectively hostage that I felt I had Stockholm syndrome.” Jesus. Where is my copy?? I want to be sucked in to the Stockholm syndrome level. The reviewer said it stood up to everything out there like it. “But what sets The Country of Ice Cream Star apart from its rivals is the extraordinary, blistering insistence of its language.”
My plan is to read it just before it comes out here, and to post more fully about it then. But I had to mention this review, to let everyone know that this really great book is coming.
This is Sandy in my apartment a couple months ago. It’s a screen grab from a short movie we made of her reading from the book.
Nice to see this review in The Guardian. Heard her read a couple months ago. Some intriguing language play beneath the patois. Look forward to reading it myself.