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“Combining a rigorous intellect and a deep
humanity, this is the story of a feminist hero, a family coming together and
apart, and the ways we interpret the past and attempt to face the future. Most
of all, Florence Gordon shows how passion—of one type or the
other—shapes a heart.”
— Alice Sebold, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Lovely Bones
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“Florence is one feisty seventy-five-year-old. A
brilliant ‘feminist icon,’ she’s also a cranky pain in the neck, forever
resisting her family’s attempts to corral her. In this smart, funny, and
compassionate book, Morton brings the whole endearing bunch to life as they
struggle with surprising events and get ambushed by unruly emotions. It’s a
treat.”
— People
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“The realist novel is far from
dead. Brian Morton’s Florence Gordon
offers a lovely example of the quiet, nourishing pleasure it affords…With no
pyrotechnics or special effects, Mr. Morton crafts an ending that is partly
sad, partly hopeful, and, like life, inconclusive.”
— Wall Street Journal
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“A clever and amusing novel about intellectual life.”
— New York Times Book Review
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“What a treat it is to read
Brian Morton’s latest novel, populated with the prickly, civic-minded liberal
intellectuals we’ve come to expect from him…self-aware and humorous…Morton
doesn’t insult us with cheesy, sentimental breakthroughs, but he does offer
this comfort—characters who are so believable you expect to run into them
ordering from the deli counter at Zabar’s.”
— NPR.org
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“Morton is a quietly confident
writer, who imbues even throwaway lines of dialogue with crackling wit and
whose characters banter like actors in a screwball comedy…Morton, without
ever seeming to worry about it, is a terrific counterargument to those who
claim that men can’t write believable female characters…With Florence Gordon, Morton has written a
heartfelt paean to a ‘gloriously difficult woman.’"
— Christian Science Monitor
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“Morton treats the material
with a light touch and a dry sense of humor…He is compassionate without being
sentimental, even when his characters face life-changing challenges. His take
on the relationship between grandmother and granddaughter is particularly
refreshing…Morton creates individuals, not types, and makes what could be a
familiar story fresh.”
— Columbus Dispatch
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“That Brian Morton has made an
engaging and appealing novel with this difficult septuagenarian at its heart is
no small accomplishment…warm, funny and always deeply human…[Morton]
develops characters worth knowing…Florence Gordon, for all her fine
qualities, never ends up being lovable. But Brian Morton’s novel certainly
is.”
— Buffalo News
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“Morton offers up a fascinating family presided over
by the irascible Florence Gordon…Morton’s
characters are sharply drawn, vivid in temperament and behavior, and his prose
smartly reveals Florence’s strength and dignity.”
— Publishers Weekly (starred review)
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“Always a
pleasure to read for his well-drawn characters, quiet insight, and dialogue
that crackles with wit, Morton here raises his own bar in all three areas. He
also joins a sadly small club of male writers who have created memorable
heroines.”
— Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
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“Morton has created an obstreperous, rebellious
character who is likable for being true to herself.”
— Library Journal
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“Perceptive isn’t a strong enough
word to describe Brian Morton’s insight into family dynamics; psychic is
more like it. From the nuances of a long marriage to the inevitable, infinitely
sad divisions and tender connections between grandparents and parents and
children, Morton nails it all. And somehow he still manages to be funny, even
as he breaks your heart.”
— Emily Gould, author of Friendship
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“A marvelously wise, compassionate, funny,
rueful, and altogether winning novel. Brian Morton knows inside-out this tribe
of witty, thoughtful people who, for all their decent values and good
intentions, can’t seem to narrow the unbridgeable distance between men and
women, young and old, pride and compromise, solitariness and community. Florence Gordon is his most generously
ample, humane, and vital book.”
— Phillip Lopate, author of To Show and to Tell
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“Florence Gordon is a marvelous creation. Like
many great characters in English literature, she is a sacred monster, fully
realized and richly present in the pages of this thoroughly enjoyable book.”
— Vivian Gornick, author of Fierce Attachments
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“Florence Gordon is one of contemporary
literature’s most wondrous characters: flawed and brilliant, funny and serious,
totally unforgettable.”
— Darin Strauss, author of Chang and Eng
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“Florence
Gordon belongs on the very short list of wonderful novels about older
women. Florence, the brilliant, cranky, solitude-craving feminist writer, is an
indelible character, and her New York—the fading city of books and writers and
melancholy oddballs—lives on in these immensely pleasurable pages.”
— Katha Pollit, author of Learning to Drive: and Other Life Stories