Reviews
"Spiotta's slim, intense novel is an insightful meditation on the damage wrought by a fame-obsessed culture, an unflinching look at family bonds that can turn to shackles and a virtuoso literary performance." - St. Petersburg Times, "Extraordinary.... Diamond-honed prose.... Spiotta delivers one of the most moving and original portraits of a sibling relationship in recent fiction."- Publishers Weekly , starred review, “There’s a fine tradition of pop-music novels, and Stone Arabia joins the genre’s upper echelons with this transfixing story... It’s as though Nabokov had written a rock novel.� Entertainment Weekly, "Stone Arabia is a rock n' roll novel like no other. Where desire for legacy tangles with fantasy. And identity and memory are in and out of control. A loser's game of conceit, deceit, passion, love and the raw mystery of superstar desire."-- Thurston Moore, "Dana Spiotta is a major, unnervingly intelligent writer. Stone Arabia once again showcases her formidable skills." -Joy Williams, author of The Quick and the Dead, "Added to the brilliant glitter of Ms. Spiotta's earlier work...is something deeper and sadder: not just alienation, but a hard-won awareness of mortality and passing time... both a clever meditation on the feedback loop between life and art, and a moving portrait of a brother and sister, whose wild youth on the margins of the rock scene has given way to the disillusionments and vexations of middle age." -Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times, "Evocative, mysterious, incongruously poetic…gritty, intelligent, mordent, and deeply sad...Spiotta has created, in Stone Arabia , a work of visceral honesty and real beauty." - The New York Times Book Review, "Dana Spiotta's stunning, virtuoso novel Stone Arabia plays out the A and B sides of a sibling bond..." -Elissa Schappell, Vanity Fair, "Evocative, mysterious, incongruously poetic...gritty, intelligent, mordent, and deeply sad...Spiotta has created, in Stone Arabia , a work of visceral honesty and real beauty." --Kate Christensen, The New York Times Book Review, "Is there a more electrifying novelist working than Dana Spiotta'...[Stone Arabia] makes for a sharp character study: A portrait of the artist as middle-aged never-was. Yet Spiotta's genius is to recognize that Nik's journey is representative not just for his sister or his mother but for every one of us." -David Ulin, LA Times, "Extraordinary&. Diamond-honed prose.... Spiotta delivers one of the most moving and original portraits of a sibling relationship in recent fiction."- Publishers Weekly , starred review, "I read Stone Arabia avidly and with awe. The language of it, the whole Gnostic hipness of it is absolutely riveting. It comes together in the most artful, surprising, insistent, satisfying way. Dana Spiotta is a major, unnervingly intelligent writer." -Joy Williams, author of The Quick and the Dead, "Spiotta's book is a triumph of structure... The skill with which Spiotta builds her characters and their offbeat, nuanced relationship makes it easy to feel like the kind of panting fan Nik could only have written about." -NPR.org, "I read Stone Arabia avidly and with awe. The language of it, the whole Gnostic hipness of it is absolutely riveting. It comes together in the most artful, surprising, insistent, satisfying way. Dana Spiotta is a major, unnervingly intelligent writer." --Joy Williams, author of The Quick and the Dead, "Evocative, mysterious, incongruously poetic…gritty, intelligent, mordent, and deeply sad...Spiotta has created, in Stone Arabia , a work of visceral honesty and real beauty." -Kate Christensen, The New York Times Book Review, " Stone Arabia is a collage of discursive textures, a polyphonic meditation on epistemology... It is a smart, subtle, moving story about the complicated business of knowing the people you love." -Matthew Sharpe, Bookforum, "Dana Spiotta's stunning, virtuoso novel Stone Arabia plays out the A and B sides of a sibling bond..." --Elissa Schappell, Vanity Fair, "Outstanding...Male American writers have talked about the incursion of the real into territory previously held by the novelist's capacity for invention; but who before Spiotta has written about reality's threat not to imagination but to memory itself'...An essential American writer." -Jonathan Dee, Harper's M a gazine, “With a DeLillo-like ability to pinpoint the delusions of an era, the National Book Award-nominated Spiotta explores the inner workings of celebrity, family, and other modern-day mythologies.� -- Vogue, "Stunning . . . possesses the staccato ferocity of Joan Didion and the historical resonance and razzle-dazzle language of Don DeLillo."- Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times, "[Dana Spiotta has] captured that hankering for something alluring in the past that never was - a moment of desire and pretense that the best pop music articulates for each generation." -Houston Chronicle, "Added to the brilliant glitter of Ms. Spiotta's earlier work...is something deeper and sadder: not just alienation, but a hard-won awareness of mortality and passing time... both a clever meditation on the feedback loop between life and art, and a moving portrait of a brother and sister, whose wild youth on the margins of the rock scene has given way to the disillusionments and vexations of middle age." --Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times, "Fascinating...resonant...what's most remarkable about Stone Arabia is the way Spiotta explores such broad, endemic social ills in the small, peculiar lives of these sad siblings. Her reflections on the precarious nature of modern life are witty until they're really unsettling." -Ron Charles, Washington Post, "Outstanding...Male American writers have talked about the incursion of the real into territory previously held by the novelist's capacity for invention; but who before Spiotta has written about reality's threat not to imagination but to memory itself'...An essential American writer." --Jonathan Dee, Harper's Magazine, The book maps a post-punk milieu where the sense of completeness punk offered... never goes away. Spiotta can capture whole lives in the most ordinary transaction, and make it cut like X's 'Los Angeles' or the Avengers' 'Car Crash.' --Greil Marcus, The Believer|9781451617962|, The book maps a post-punk milieu where the sense of completeness punk offered... never goes away. Spiotta can capture whole lives in the most ordinary transaction, and make it cut like X's 'Los Angeles' or the Avengers' 'Car Crash.' -Greil Marcus, The Believer|9781451617962|, “Dana Spiotta’s stunning, virtuoso novel Stone Arabia plays out the A and B sides of a sibling bond between a brothernow a reclusive middle-aged musician who, seeing his shot at rock superstardom burn out, obsesses over his scrap-books, a fantasy version of his careerand his idolizing younger sister and enabler, now a mom, who strives for family harmony.� Vanity Fair, " Stone Arabia is propelled by Spiotta's unflashy eloquence, dry wit and depth of feeling. She's an exceptional novelist, as sharp on socio-political history as she is on romance and family and especially, the spaces where such things overlap." --Minneapolis Star Tribune, "Spiotta's slim, intense novel is an insightful meditation on the damage wrought by a fame-obsessed culture, an unflinching look at family bonds that can turn to shackles and a virtuoso literary performance." -- St. Petersburg Times, "Stone Arabia possesses the edged beauty and charged prose of Dana Spiotta's earlier work, but in this novel about siblings, music, teen desire and adult decay, Spiotta reaches ever deeper, tracking her characters' sweet, dangerous American dreaming with glorious precision. Here is a wonderful novel by one of our major writers."-- Sam Lipsyte, author of The Ask, "Fascinating...resonant...what's most remarkable about Stone Arabia is the way Spiotta explores such broad, endemic social ills in the small, peculiar lives of these sad siblings. Her reflections on the precarious nature of modern life are witty until they're really unsettling." --Ron Charles, Washington Post, "Added to the brilliant glitter of Ms. Spiotta's earlier work so reminiscent, at times, of early Don DeLillo and early Joan Didion is something deeper and sadder: not just alienation, but a hard-won awareness of mortality and passing time... both a clever meditation on the feedback loop between life and art, and a moving portrait of a brother and sister, whose wild youth on the margins of the rock scene has given way to the disillusionments and vexations of middle age." -Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times, "[Dana Spiotta has] captured that hankering for something alluring in the past that never was - a moment of desire and pretense that the best pop music articulates for each generation." --Houston Chronicle, "With a DeLillo-like ability to pinpoint the delusions of an era, the National Book Award-nominated Spiotta explores the inner workings of celebrity, family, and other modern-day mythologies." -- Vogue, "Dana Spiotta's Stone Arabia is a dreamlike meditation on fame and success, technology and the imagination. The novel beautifully manifests Ms. Spiotta's gift for transforming her keen cultural intelligence into haunting, evocative prose." -Jennifer Egan, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning A Visit from the Goon Squad, "Spiotta's book is a triumph of structure... The skill with which Spiotta builds her characters and their offbeat, nuanced relationship makes it easy to feel like the kind of panting fan Nik could only have written about." --NPR.org, "Is there a more electrifying novelist working than Dana Spiotta'...[ Stone Arabia ] makes for a sharp character study: A portrait of the artist as middle-aged never-was. Yet Spiotta's genius is to recognize that Nik's journey is representative not just for his sister or his mother but for every one of us." -David Ulin, LA Times, "[Dana Spiotta has] captured that hankering for something alluring in the past that never was a moment of desire and pretense that the best pop music articulates for each generation." -Houston Chronicle, "Extraordinary…. Diamond-honed prose.... Spiotta delivers one of the most moving and original portraits of a sibling relationship in recent fiction."- Publishers Weekly , starred review, "Outstanding...Male American writers have talked about the incursion of the real into territory previously held by the novelist's capacity for invention; but who before Spiotta has written about reality's threat not to imagination but to memory itself'...An essential American writer." -Jonathan Dee, Harper's Magazine, "Stunning . . . possesses the staccato ferocity of Joan Didion and the historical resonance and razzle-dazzle language of Don DeLillo."-- Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times, " Stone Arabia is propelled by Spiotta's unflashy eloquence, dry wit and depth of feeling. She's an exceptional novelist, as sharp on socio-political history as she is on romance and family and especially, the spaces where such things overlap." -Minneapolis Star Tribune, "Evocative, mysterious, incongruously poetic…gritty, intelligent, mordent, and deeply sad...Spiotta has created, in Stone Arabia, a work of visceral honesty and real beauty." -Kate Christensen, The New York Times Book Review, "Extraordinary.... Diamond-honed prose.... Spiotta delivers one of the most moving and original portraits of a sibling relationship in recent fiction."-- Publishers Weekly , starred review, “The book maps a post-punk milieu where the sense of completeness punk offered... never goes away. Spiotta can capture whole lives in the most ordinary transaction, and make it cut like X’s ‘Los Angeles’ or the Avengers’ ‘Car Crash.’ Greil Marcus, The Believer, "Evocative, mysterious, incongruously poetic...gritty, intelligent, mordent, and deeply sad...Spiotta has created, in Stone Arabia , a work of visceral honesty and real beauty." -Kate Christensen, The New York Times Book Review, "Dana Spiotta's stunning, virtuoso novel Stone Arabia plays out the A and B sides of a sibling bond between a brother-now a reclusive middle-aged musician who, seeing his shot at rock superstardom burn out, obsesses over his scrap-books, a fantasy version of his career-and his idolizing younger sister and enabler, now a mom, who strives for family harmony." -Elissa Schappell, Vanity Fair, "Is there a more electrifying novelist working than Dana Spiotta'...[ Stone Arabia ] makes for a sharp character study: A portrait of the artist as middle-aged never-was. Yet Spiotta's genius is to recognize that Nik's journey is representative not just for his sister or his mother but for every one of us." --David Ulin, LA Times, “ Stone Arabia is a collage of discursive textures, a polyphonic meditation on epistemology... It is a smart, subtle, moving story about the complicated business of knowing the people you love.� Matthew Sharpe, Bookforum, "Stone Arabia is a rock n' roll novel like no other. Where desire for legacy tangles with fantasy. And identity and memory are in and out of control. A loser's game of conceit, deceit, passion, love and the raw mystery of superstar desire."- Thurston Moore, "Stone Arabia possesses the edged beauty and charged prose of Dana Spiotta's earlier work, but in this novel about siblings, music, teen desire and adult decay, Spiotta reaches ever deeper, tracking her characters' sweet, dangerous American dreaming with glorious precision. Here is a wonderful novel by one of our major writers."-- Sam Lipsyte, author of The Ask, "A smart, subtle, moving story about the complicated business of knowing the people you love...a wild, sorrowful, rambling, deeply subjective, incandescently beautiful document." --Matthew Sharpe, Bookforum, "A smart, subtle, moving story about the complicated business of knowing the people you love...a wild, sorrowful, rambling, deeply subjective, incandescently beautiful document." -Matthew Sharpe, Bookforum
