Editor's note: Chris Bolton is not only a former Powell's employee, he was also once the primary writer for this blog. So we are particularly proud...
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winkyscarlett, January 31, 2013 (view all comments by winkyscarlett)
I read a lot so it took a lot of reflection to select my favorite book of the year. This book is compelling, hypnotic, and lyrical. It was neck and neck with "Bring Up the Bodies" but then I remembered the heart-stopping (won't give any spoilers) plot development, and that broke the deadlock. This book dominated my inner world for days after the actual reading ceased, and on the strength of that I vote for "Canada" for the 2012 Puddly.
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az reader55, January 31, 2013 (view all comments by az reader55)
From the first page you know what happens but the author takes you on a journey and you have no idea how the events will transpire. Wonderful writng and realistic charachters.
arakady226, January 30, 2013 (view all comments by arakady226)
A superior ride from the vast expanses of rural prairies with an outcast 15 year old boy as he tries to comprehend the fact that he really does not know anyone - from his parents to his twin sister to the adults who take him in after his parents commit crimes which he thought were not within their frame of capability. A view told from that 15 year old's point of view with incredible accuracy and believability.
"Review"
by The New Yorker,
“Pure vocal grace, quiet humor, precise and calm observation.”
"Review"
by USA Today,
“A triumph of voice....The writing...is spare, but heartbreaking.”
"Review"
by Washington Post,
"A magnificent work of Montana gothic that confirms his position as one of the finest stylists and most humane storytellers in America...Ford has left the suburbs of New Jersey two thousand miles away and delivered his most elegiac and profound book."
"Review"
by Wall Street Journal,
“Robust and powerful...Ford is able to tap into something momentous and elemental about the profound moral chaos behind the actions of seemingly responsible people...Ford has dramatized the frightening discovery of the world's anarchic heart.”
"Review"
by Daily Beast,
“Richard Ford returns with one of his most powerful novels yet…Ford has never written better…Canada is Richard Ford's best book since Independence Day, and despite its robbery and killings it too depends on its voice, a voice oddly calm and marked by the spare grandeur of its landscape.”
"Review"
by Entertainment Weekly,
“Told in Ford's exquisitely detailed, unhurried prose…Ford is interested here in the ways snap decisions can bend life in unexpected directions...Canada's characters grapple with this...and the answers they come up with define the rest of their lives, along with this quietly thoughtful book.”
"Review"
by O, the Oprah Magazine,
“Awe-inspiring....The laconic, grief-stricken voice of Dell, looking back on his past, trying to make some kind sense of what happened when his family imploded, keeps you turning pages, as do the quiet, thought-provoking revelations that Ford drops in throughout.”
"Review"
by Vogue,
“Masterly...in Ford's American tragedy, filled with lost innocence and inevitable violence — a rusting carnival, a rabbit caught in a coyote's jaws — geography feels a lot like fate.”
"Review"
by Christian Science Monitor,
“One of the most memorably heartbreaking novels of the year.”
"Review"
by Men's Journal,
“[Ford's] newest novel Canada, shows an artist in full command of his craft — sparsely elegant and bracingly direct, with a refreshing lack of irony or tricks.”
"Review"
by The Oregonian (Portland),
“Marvelous…Canada is a masterpiece of a story with rich language and dialogue filled with suspense, bleakness, human frailties and flaws, and a little bit of hope seen through the eyes of an adolescent boy whose emotions seem often aligned with the desolate landscape of its setting.”
"Review"
by St. Paul Pioneer Press,
“A must-read....Canada reminds us why Ford is considered one of this country's most distinguished writers.”
"Review"
by Austin American-Statesman,
“[A] deeply felt and magnificently imagined work....With Canada, Ford has given us his deepest exploration yet of weakness and betrayal set amid a boys coming of age. It is a memorable novel, suffused with love, sorrow and regret.”
"Review"
by Washington Independent Review of Books,
“[A] novel about big truths told by a writer with clear vision…solid, satisfying craftsmanship. This is a Richard Ford novel in the tradition of his earlier work. It also is a coming-of-age story, and a story about the discovery of identity.”
"Review"
by Colm Toibin,
“This is a brilliant and engrossing portrait of a fragile American family and the fragile consciousness of a teenage boy. It is also fascinating in the way it reveals the plot in the opening page and then winds backwards, offering a more and more intimate version of the story.”
"Synopsis"
by Harper Collins,
The only writer ever to win both the Pulitzer Prize and Pen/Faulkner Award for a single novel (Independence Day) Richard Ford follows the completion of his acclaimed Bascombe trilogy with Canada. After a five-year hiatus, an undisputed American master delivers a haunting and elemental novel about the cataclysm that undoes one teenage boys family, and the stark and unforgiving landscape in which he attempts to find grace. A powerful and unforgettable tale of the violence lurking at the heart of the world, Richard Ford's Canada will resonate long and loud for readers of stark and sweeping novels of American life, from the novels of Cheever and Carver to the works of Philip Roth, Charles Frazier, Richard Russo, and Jonathan Franzen.
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