Richard Ford - Canada

Time Out New York“Canada just might come to represent a different state of mind...” It’s difficult to overlook the narrative conveniences...But Ford’s keen, philosophical analysis of human motivation and its subtle inconsistencies make the reader forgive the long haul...

The Telegraph“A scrupulously rendered coming of age story...” It’s part of the novel’s distinction that it never seeks to force the issue, unspooling without haste. Were it cut down to size, you wouldn’t shudder when Dell alludes, ahead of time and out of the blue, to a suicide, or a murder...

The Independent“A marvellously furnished world...” In Ford's novels, what is depicted is exactly what is seen, a peculiar miracle of transcription and feeling. His world is dense with objects, accurately set out...

The A.V. Club“It's a chronicle of how to live, constructed around the opposite choice...” Ford layers that counter-story like rock underneath Dell’s observations, coloring the meanings he draws from his years of hiding in plain sight, an American outsider and a lost child for whom no one is looking...

The New York Times“Ungainly but at times powerful...” A deeply flawed novel, but one whose first half is so strong and persuasive that it pushes us through to the story’s conclusion, eager to find out how Dell has dealt with all the loss and disorder in his life...

The Observer“A surprisingly different kind of great Richard Ford novel...” The writing is leaner, tighter and less concerned with the inner significance of everyday things. Ford can still stretch a sentence, often beautifully, to paragraph length, but his writing is much more straightforwardly descriptive...

Financial Times“Highly charged...” It’s too long and would have been more successful as a tauter and more urgent book. Still, it’s good to be in his company when he is writing well, as he is for much of this novel...

Guardian“Richly imagined and beautifully fashioned...” Although it is too early to do so, one is tempted to acclaim it a masterpiece. It catches movingly the grinding loneliness at the heart of American life – of life anywhere...

Publishers Weekly“Tragic rural farrago composed of two awkwardly joined halves...” The book’s first half has the makings of a succinct rural tragedy, but Dell’s inquisition of the past is so deliberate that it eventually moves from poignant to played out. The Canadian section has a mythic strangeness, but adds little...