Staff Pick
The Sarah Book careens roughshod over marriage, addiction, parenthood, and pet ownership en route to a stomach-churning portrayal of intersecting lives. McClanahan's prose is a downhill blur throughout, radical candor mingling with attempted penance, recounted in tear-streaked terms of estrangement. A close-to-the-bone ode to dissolution and self-destruction in West Virginia. Recommended By Justin W., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
McClanahan's prose is miasmic, dizzying, repetitive. A rushing river of words that reflects the chaos and humanity of the place from which he hails. He writes in an elliptical fever dream so contagious that slowing down is not an option. It would be like putting a doorstop in front of a speeding train. This is not a book you savor. It is one you inhale. The New York Times
Part memoir, part hillbilly history, part dream, McClanahan embraces humanity with all its grit, writing tenderly of criminals and outcasts, family and the blood ties that bind us.
Interview Magazine
McClanahan's prose is miasmic, dizzying, repetitive. A rushing river of words that reflects the chaos and humanity of the place from which he hails. McClanahan] aims to lasso the moon... He is not a writer of halfmeasures. The man has purpose. This is his symphony, every note designed to resonate, to linger. New York Times Book Review
The Sarah Book is Scott McClanahan's continuation of the semi-autobiographical portrait he's been writing over the years about his life in West Virginia. This one is his portrait of love.
Review
“Scott McClanahan’s writing is so pure, honest and immediately engaging, it felt like I wasn’t just reading prose: it felt like I was reading the prose. The Sarah Book is hilarious, unflinching and deeply sad. Its every chapter, every page, every observation an addictive delight. I read it in one sitting and days later am still stumbling around from its unexpected wallop.” Maria Semple, This One Is Mine
Review
"Scott McClanahan's The Sarah Book is a furious exhalation of love and hurt and hate and tenderness and anger. This is a chronicle of a couple coming together and breaking apart. There is courage in these pages because so much of what McClanahan details is ugly and desperate and raw--everything, food, drink, love, heartbreak, to excess. The writing is so intimate you want to reach into the book to save this man from himself but you can't. That impossibility is what makes this book so memorable, so powerful." Roxane Gay
Review
“The romance and destruction of a marriage. I couldn’t put it down. Written with all the punches left in. McClanahan shows us the dents and scrapes and breakdowns of a man trying to be to a husband and father while at the same time sabotaging the very things he loves. Unnerving but remarkable.” Willy Vlautin, The Motel Life
About the Author
Scott McClanahan is the author of Hill William, Crapalachia, The Incantations of Daniel Johnson and many more.