Praise for
Familiar:
"[An] allusive and mysterious novel . . . one of [Lennon's] finest." —
The New York Times Book Review"This is an important book, one that reflects the 21st-century human's fragmentary condition in both content and form, told in a manner so thrilling that it achieves an almost magical propulsion. It's very funny, too. . . . Lennon has created a woman for our times, no matter how many of our times are happening at once.
Familiar is a terrific novel, unnerving and, ultimately, true." —
Boston Globe"
Familiar is as tightly wound as a great Alfred Hitchcock movie. . . . He keeps
Familiar balanced at a perfect pitch between allowing us to believe what has happened to Elisa is real and to think that she's had a mental breakdown brought about by anxiety and depression. In the scientific shadows, Lennon has executed a literary puzzle, a marvelous trick of the mind." —
Los Angeles Times"The questions posed by this novel shift over time from the metaphysical to the moral, and in the end,
Familiar stands as a resonant and haunting riddle." —
Star Tribune (Minneapolis)
"Like Vonnegut, Lennon is able to defy genres. . . . Sad and captivating,
Familiar explores the depths of loss and the limits of reality, leaving us to consider our susceptibility to the lives we create for ourselves." —
The Outlet, the blog of Electric Literature
"Lennon's smart, chilling prose and the urgency of present tense carry this story to its dramatic, if ambiguous, conclusion. . . . A smart, fast-paced novel." —
Shelf Awareness for Readers, starred review
Praise for J. Robert Lennon:
“Over the last decade, J. Robert Lennon’s literary imagination has grown increasingly morbid, convoluted and peculiar—just as his books have grown commensurately more surprising, rigorous and fun.” —Scott Bradfield,
The New York Times Book Review