REVIEWS		  
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Praise for Do Not Deny Me

“Stories…which feature a flash of recognition or understanding, after which nothing will be the same…Thompson populates her fiction with characters, who, on the surface, could hardly be more ordinary, more like the folks down the block…[but] the problems endured by Thompson’s protagonists are no less painful for being unexceptional…What’s most admirable about Thompson’s fiction is her unflagging patience with the flaws and limitations of these decent people.”
-- Francine Prose, New York Times Book Review

"Move over, Alice Munro, this gifted writer now sits in my mind near the throne of the short-story queens and kings of old. [Thompson] is a master of dialogue, character, pacing and plot, and—anyone who loves the form will have to cheer about this…And the dialogue—pitch perfect.” Read more...
-- Alan Cheuse, Chicago Tribune

“The prose brims with unforced insight…[an] immensely satisfying new collection.”
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-- Los Angeles Times

"Thompson...wields illuminating quotidian details and stunningly apt clichés with lethal skill Wonderful work from a contemporary master of scrupulous observation, plain statement and unvarnished common sense."
-- Kirkus Reviews

"For all her art, [Thompson] never forgets the first dictum of storytelling: stuff happens, usually surprising stuff. Reviewing such a remarkable writer, one’s own words can seem too ordinary, but Thompson’s talent is such that it can overcome even those limitations."
-- Keir Graff, Booklist

“National Book Award–finalist Thompson (for Who Do You Love) delivers a deeply affecting collection that elevates the quotidian to the sublime. Thompson immerses readers in details and emotions so consuming and convincing that the inane vagaries of modern life can take on near mythic importance. This collection shows the confidence and power of a writer in her prime.”
-- Publisher's Weekly (starred review)

“Thompson has been called America’s Alice Munro, and in this collection of delicate tales of modern life, she earns the comparison … Thompson’s puckish spirit comes through in every story, but each one is completely original.”
-- Wall Street Journal

"Thompson is not sentimental but practical: Nobody will save us from sorrow, so we must try to save ourselves. Author of two excellent collections and the novels City Boy and Wide Blue Yonder, Thompson is an astute observer of the pitfalls of contemporary life, how it isolates and challenges, how it brings out one's worst and best. Her clear-eyed, thought-provoking stories highlight rare, precious moments of grace even as she wisely notes the human tendency toward selfishness, pettiness and general bad behavior.
-- Connie Ogle, Miami Herald

"Jean Thompson's ultimately life-affirming fiction[is] fashioned with empathy, wit and insight; carefully measured and precisely crafted; and built to last.” Read more...
-- Bruce Allen, Raleigh News and Observer

“'Triumph' is an excellent way to describe this collection. The variety of themes, situations, and characters provide glimpses into different experiences of modern American life and leave readers with a wealth to reflect upon. Every story is so full of insight and poetry, readers will find themselves underlining entire passages and longing to discuss them with literary friends.” Read more...
-- Kelly Powell, Feminist Review

"Thompson (Who Do You Love) takes us to a disturbing place in this darkly beautiful collection of short stories—her fifth. We see lives falling apart, relationships soured and occasionally violent, and hope distant and elusive...There is a tragic sensibility at work here (a Thompson hallmark) and a keen sense of how precarious and fragile love and friendship are. Thompson notes in the ironically titled "How We Brought the Good News" that the world is "flawed in unexpected ways," and she helps us understand the pathos and heartbreak of that discovery. Enthusiastically recommended."
-- Patrick Sullivan, Library Journal

"The best stories in Do Not Deny Me make us feel the alienation and disorientation of Thompson’s characters as an experience that is paradoxically rich, emotionally and metaphorically."
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-- Stephen Elliot, The Rumpus Blog
 
 
  

Praise for Throw Like a Girl

“Some of the collection’s biggest satisfactions happen line by line, thanks to Thompson’s effortless ability to tip her prose into the universal....It’s a testament to Thompson’s writing that she’s able to wrest so much variety and entertainment from a …literary landscape.”
-- New York Times Book Review

“[Thompson] is a sensitive, humorous, very informed chronicler—no, singer—of ordinary people in ordinary towns who face ordinary life issues, primarily relationships in familial and sexual forms. But it is Thompson’s ability to spot the special feature of any such situation to the individual involved that is her strength and attraction. It wouldn’t be wrong to also call her the poet of these unglamorous lives, given her pithy, poignant, yet often beautiful prose style.”
-- Booklist
(starred review)

"In her fourth collection of gritty, grueling stories, [Thompson] emerges as something very much like Alice Munro. Each of the 12 stories is precisely fashioned, distinguished by complex and unsparing characterizations and studded with metaphors made from the stuff of everyday life...and wry acknowledgements of the sheer drugery of living. In [her best stories], Thompson rivals Munro at her greatest. One of the best contemporary short-story writers in peak form."
-- Kirkus Review
(starred review)

"Twelve stories trace the arc of womanhood from pubescent gloom to end-of-life regrets in this moody but compassionate collection ... Thompson packs a gallon’s worth of wisdom into each quart-size gem.”
-- People Magazine

"In stirring prose and masterfully funny repartee, Thompson writes from somewhere inside her characters, filling them with urges and ambitions that bubble up and set off ripples of longing. These stories are insistent that children aren’t unwise and that we often gain vitality as we age. Most of all, they remind you of people in your own life—and make you feel like you know them just a little better."
-- Elle Magazine

"A hard-hitting latest collection of stories ... Thompson's talent is on full display."
-- Publisher's Weekly

Praise for Who Do You Love

"With spare eloquence, Thompson surveys the lives of emotionally dislocated people craving connection, but infuses even the saddest situation with humor and a wry glimmer of hope. The fifteen stories in this collection ring with an unpretentious integrity and a knowledge of human complexities."
-- Publishers Weekly
Best Books of 1999

"Like Raymond Carver, Thompson is fascinated by the sudden and unlikely communion of people. Her characters vary -- there are junkies, cops, women who've lost men to drugs, religion and everything else, but she never condescends to them, no matter how hungry their hearts are, no matter how many screws they have loose....Her fiction may never make her rich, but Who Do You Love is still a gold mine."
-- Jeff Giles, Newsweek

"A quietly devastating book...few fiction writers working today have more successfully rendered the sensation of solid ground suddenly melting away, pinpointing that instant when the familiar present is swallowed up by an always encroaching past or voided future."
-- Katherine Dieckmann,
The New York Times Book Review

Praise for City Boy

"A cage-rattling, profoundly satisfying book."
-- Pam Houston, O, The Oprah Magazine

"Mesmerizing...City Boy abounds in...mordant wit and keen psychological observations."
-- Boston Herald

"The dark and punishing terrain of the broken human heart is flawlessly charted by Jean Thompson in City Boy."
-- Baltimore Sun

Praise for Wide Blue Yonder

"Detonates a whole fireworks of happy endings -- flares of hope and success so exuberant that the book almost seems to require a warning label."
-- Lisa Zeidner
The New York Times Book Review

"Wide Blue Yonder offers precisely the kind of beautifully crafted, intelligent, imaginative writing that serious readers crave....Each sentence deserves to be appreciated."
-- Deirdre Donahue, USA Today

"Wide Blue Yonder reaffirms Thompson's stature as one of our most lucid and insightful writers."
-- Andrew Roe,
San Francisco Chronicle