From Powells.com
Elizabeth
McCracken's epigraph to her stunning second novel, Niagara Falls All
Over Again, is a line from Atoll K, Oliver Hardy and Stan Laurel's
last movie, made in 1950. Hardy says to Laurel, "Haven't I always taken care
of you? You're the first one I think of." This line, in its poignant simplicity,
is the echo heard throughout Niagara Falls, as comedy team Carter and
Sharp traverse ten years of vaudeville, move on to radio and Broadway, and finally
graduate to making movies in Hollywood. Narrator Mose Carter is the straight
man to Rocky Sharp a lean, pragmatic Abbott to Sharp's bumbling, plump
Costello. Their path to success is littered, inevitably, with tragedy, but McCracken
traces this frequently problematic relationship with her customary inventiveness,
sharp wit, and delicate heart. McCracken has always displayed a keen eye for
mismatched love stories. Her first novel, The
Giant's House, and her collection of stories, Here's
Your Hat, What's Your Hurry?, open the reader up to the vagaries and truths
behind some of the oddest couplings. Niagara Falls All Over Again is
fabulous entertainment, for McCracken drives an action-packed plot with the
power of a locomotive. But it is her human portraits and the way she paints
the pain and pleasure of relationships that show her for the master she is.
McCracken is a beautiful writer. Her characters are sympathetic because she
translates human frailty with such honesty that we have no choice but to recognize
the same qualities in ourselves. Georgie, Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
By turns graceful and knowing, funny and moving, Niagara Falls All Over Again is the latest masterwork by National Book Award finalist and
About the Author
Elizabeth McCracken is the recipient of the Harold Vursell Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and has received grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Michener Foundation, the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, and the National Endowment for the Arts. She was also honored as one of Granta's 20 Best American Writers Under 40. In addition to The Giants House, she is the author of Heres Your Hat, Whats Your Hurry.