As a winner of the National Book Award for Fiction, the novel received a largely positive reception. Similarly, the book review aggregator website, Bookmarks, assigned the novel a positive reception based on 13 reviews.[3] The LA Times described the novel as an "under-the-radar" second novel, which deserves the award.[4] The reviewer described the book as a successful depiction of Southern life and culture and "an intense book, with powerful, direct prose that dips into poetic metaphor."[4] Similarly the New York Times Sunday Book Review called the novel "a taut, wily novel, smartly plotted and voluptuously written."[5] The Washington Post wrote that "it’ll be a long time before its magic wears off" and that the novel has the "aura of a classic about it."[6]
This content is from Wikipedia. GradeSaver is providing this content as a courtesy until we can offer a professionally written study guide by one of our staff editors. We do not consider this content professional or citable. Please use your discretion when relying on it.
