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“A darkly bewitching first novel.”
— New York Review of Books
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“Martin has a poetic sensibility...He gives a mesmerizing appeal to the setting of an alexandrite necklace and the delicate artistry involved in shaping a diamond.”
— New Yorker
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“How to Sell, Clancy Martin’s sly debut novel, is a lesson in double dealing—in business and in romance…This is one of those books that makes you slap your forehead and marvel at the intricate lies that ensnare the unwary, even as you check to make sure your wallet and your wits are right where you left them.”
— O, The Oprah Magazine
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“How to Sell is outrageous, theatrical and slicker than oil…a gem of a story.”
— Newsweek
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“It’s a lean and mean book, perfect for those who distrust all this recent talk about change. The kind of novel—cool and dark—that goes with you to the beach and then keeps you thinking at night.”
— Esquire
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“A noirish blast of a novel.”
— Rolling Stone
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“How to Sell is, with memorably dark comedy, a virtual handbook on fraud…is a compelling setting for Martin’s propulsive storytelling. His narration feels cinematic, the sets and scenery popping off the page.”
— Elle
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“Sex, of course, may sell, but Martin's wicked take on money, the jewelry business and American passions could prove to have multiple pleasures.”
— Kansas City Star
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“A crackling debut...a bravura catalog of the scams and rackets that make up the luxury jewelry trade...Like a James Ellroy novel for people who read Spinoza's Ethics.”
— Salon.com
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“A timely meditation on greed and the American Dream.”
— Men.style.com
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“Sexy, funny and devastating…like watching one man's American dream turn into a soul-sucking nightmare.”
— Publishers Weekly (starred review)
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“The feeling you get from the moment you open Clancy Martin’s superb novel is one of inevitability. This is the inevitability of truth-telling, of tragedy, of the setup to a good joke, and, very possibly, the inevitability of the classic.”
— Benjamin Kunkel
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“Dirty, greatly original, and very hard to stop reading.”
— Jonathan Franzen
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“A tender yet hardboiled coming-of-age story, a vivid, sometimes philosophical portrait of yearning and greed, of human love and human spoilage—all of it mirrored in stripped-down, addictive prose. Clancy Martin has written a scary, funny blaze of a book.”
— Sam Lipsyte
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“A bleak, funny, unforgiving novel...about how we buy and sell everything—merchandise, drugs, sex, trust, power, peace of mind, religion, friendship, and each other...A genuinely fresh, disconcerting voice.”
— Zadie Smith