Inspiring... Matthew Quick has a way with wounded characters.” — Boston Globe
“Mr. Quick excels at writing what he knows, and making readers feel intimately connected to his characters. Love May Fail also reflects his mastery of devising humorous dialogue, interlaced with rabid vulgarity.” — Wall Street Journal
“[One of] the seven books you have to read this summer” — Marie Claire
“Ultimate summer reading.” — Good Housekeeping
“A well-told tale of how, through will or force, even the most broken people can sometimes be repaired…. Enjoyable, cinematic.” — Philadelphia Inquirer
“Quick nails it again with his quirky-but-damaged characters and gritty real-life stories—but this time, it’s an ex-wife of a cheating pornographer, her hoarder of a mother, and her former high school English teacher both moving and delighting us.” — Glamour.com
“An offbeat odyssey and a really fun end-of-summer ride.” — Parade
“There’s always reason to hope in [Quick’s] novels…A lovely, entertaining book.” — New York Daily News
“I couldn’t put it down.” — Pittsburg Post-Gazette
“Instead of breaking your heart, Quick steals it, strengthens it and gives it back….a fine writer with a gift similar to that of fellow American novelist John Irving—creating quirky, flawed but ultimately lovable and deeply human main characters.” — Winnipeg Free Press
“Great, heart-wrenching…[one of] the best mainstream books of the month…this tale of love and loss still makes us want to buy stock in the Kleenex company.” — RT Book Reviews
“Quick specializes in offbeat characters who’ve been knocked down but won’t stay down….Both irreverent and inspiring, this unique read belongs in every beach bag.” — Nashville Arts
“Charming.” — Costal Living
“The turn of a few pages is all it took for me to fall in love with Matthew Quick’s latest homage to the subtleties of joy…a madly quirky, utterly lovely world.” — Roanoke Times
“Capra-esque…engaging.” — Fort Worth Star-Telegram
“A funny and poignant family drama…great summer read.” — News & Observer (NC)
“Brilliant…compulsively readable…a plot that keeps you guessing…wholly transporting…Quick has a uniquely rewarding voice and one that, for his native Philadelphia, is creating a space in contemporary fiction all of its own.” — GQ (UK)
“Complex and thought-provoking American comedy about love and the meaning of life.” — Daily Mail (UK)
“Alive with humanity, empathy and wit…a beautifully readable novel by a writer of power and insight.” — Coast (NZ)
“Listeners will be exhilarated by this loving tribute to teachers, writers, and literature.” — AudioFile
“Funny, fierce and heartfelt.” — Satellite Sisters
“An easy, enjoyable, and thoughtful read with laughs and tears along the way. Quick’s devotees won’t be disappointed.” — Library Journal
“Quick, an ex-teacher, nails the symbiotic student-teacher relationship, with all of its attendant baggage, squarely on the head in this engaging slice-of-life dramedy with definite big-screen potential.” — Booklist
“Darkly funny.... readers will be engrossed.” — Publishers Weekly
Ultimate summer reading.
Mr. Quick excels at writing what he knows, and making readers feel intimately connected to his characters. Love May Fail also reflects his mastery of devising humorous dialogue, interlaced with rabid vulgarity.
A well-told tale of how, through will or force, even the most broken people can sometimes be repaired…. Enjoyable, cinematic.
Quick nails it again with his quirky-but-damaged characters and gritty real-life stories—but this time, it’s an ex-wife of a cheating pornographer, her hoarder of a mother, and her former high school English teacher both moving and delighting us.
Alive with humanity, empathy and wit…a beautifully readable novel by a writer of power and insight.
Listeners will be exhilarated by this loving tribute to teachers, writers, and literature.
Capra-esque…engaging.
Funny, fierce and heartfelt.
Quick, an ex-teacher, nails the symbiotic student-teacher relationship, with all of its attendant baggage, squarely on the head in this engaging slice-of-life dramedy with definite big-screen potential.
Brilliant…compulsively readable…a plot that keeps you guessing…wholly transporting…Quick has a uniquely rewarding voice and one that, for his native Philadelphia, is creating a space in contemporary fiction all of its own.
Complex and thought-provoking American comedy about love and the meaning of life.
Charming.
Quick specializes in offbeat characters who’ve been knocked down but won’t stay down….Both irreverent and inspiring, this unique read belongs in every beach bag.
A funny and poignant family drama…great summer read.
The turn of a few pages is all it took for me to fall in love with Matthew Quick’s latest homage to the subtleties of joy…a madly quirky, utterly lovely world.
Great, heart-wrenching…[one of] the best mainstream books of the month…this tale of love and loss still makes us want to buy stock in the Kleenex company.
An offbeat odyssey and a really fun end-of-summer ride.
There’s always reason to hope in [Quick’s] novels…A lovely, entertaining book.
Quick, an ex-teacher, nails the symbiotic student-teacher relationship, with all of its attendant baggage, squarely on the head in this engaging slice-of-life dramedy with definite big-screen potential.
Mr. Quick excels at writing what he knows, and making readers feel intimately connected to his characters. Love May Fail also reflects his mastery of devising humorous dialogue, interlaced with rabid vulgarity.
04/15/2015
In his third novel Quick covers some of the same ground as in The Silver Linings Playbook and The Good Luck of Right Now, focusing on unhappy and broken people finding and making a new sort of family that helps them persevere and even dream. It is also about strange coincidences, fate, a divine plan, or dumb luck, depending on your perspective. (All of those explanations are subscribed to by different characters in the book.) Portia Kane leaves an unhappy marriage to return to her South Jersey home. Along the way she meets a frisky nun, learns how to cope with her hoarder mom, rediscovers her love of hair metal (particularly Mötley Crüe), finds love again, and embarks on a quest to "resurrect" her former English teacher Mr. Vernon, a man literally broken by an old student. The story is told in four parts, each by its own narrator, which serves to give some sharp perspective on the different characters. VERDICT An easy, enjoyable, and thoughtful read with laughs and tears along the way. Quick's devotees won't be disappointed. [See Prepub Alert, 12/6/14.]—Amy Watts, Univ. of Georgia Lib., Athens
2015-03-21
When a metal head princess, a reformed junkie, a fast-talking woman of God, and a despondent retired teacher walk into a book, unpredictable chaos ensues. In his amusing but disjointed new novel, the author of The Silver Linings Playbook (2008) channels four troubled narrators to varying effect. First we meet Portia Kane, an aging trophy wife about to shoot her porn-producer husband and his perky teen lover. Then she wisely abandons this plan and storms out, instead embarking on a quest to save her hoarder mother, her suicidal high school English teacher, and—you knew this was coming—herself (in an awkward little subplot, this involves publishing a book that gets a poor Kirkus review). The teacher, Mr. Vernon, barely survived a beating by one of his students and now lives alone in the woods with a broken spirit, a lot of wine, and a dog named Albert Camus. (Quick does his best work with Vernon, who lusts after "the noses of Jewish women" and waxes nostalgic for "late PBS painter Bob Ross.") Portia lands on his doorstep in time to delay his death but not before she reconnects with a hometown friend's handsome brother, who's been crushing on her for 20 years and later chronicles their relationship in his own section. Need a breath yet? Take one now, before the nun. Our final tour guide is Sister Maeve Smith, who speaks from beyond the grave via letters to her son, aka Mr. Vernon, after she meets Portia on a plane. Call it fate, call it coincidence, call it too much plot—either way, you can't fault Quick for being short on ideas. All his books have been optioned for movies, including this one, and they almost make more sense that way: it's easy to imagine this quartet of busy narrators, whose similar voices sometimes fall flat on the page, brought to life beautifully by the right cast. An overstuffed ode to bygone pop culture and the unattainable literary life.
I couldn’t put it down.
Inspiring... Matthew Quick has a way with wounded characters.
[One of] the seven books you have to read this summer
Instead of breaking your heart, Quick steals it, strengthens it and gives it back….a fine writer with a gift similar to that of fellow American novelist John Irving—creating quirky, flawed but ultimately lovable and deeply human main characters.
There’s always reason to hope in [Quick’s] novels…A lovely, entertaining book.
