NIGHTWOODS Signs of a Hit

Following a strongly negative review from Michiko Kakutani in the New York Times for Charles Frazier’s third book, Nightwoods (Random House; Audio, Random House Audio and Books on Tape; Large Print, Random House; Audio currently on OverDrive, eBooks available soon), Ron Charles in the Washington Post, offers equally strong words of praise.

He points out, as did Kakutani, that Frazier enjoyed huge, and unexpected success with his debut, Cold Mountain, followed by lesser success for his second book Thirteen Moons (for which his new publisher paid him considerably more money than his first).

As Charles puts the question that’s on the minds of many in the publishing business,

Will Frazier’s new novel, Nightwoods, redeem his reputation (and his publisher’s faith), or will it only confirm claims that he’s a deep-fat-fried Faulkner who won the lottery on his first time out?

His answer:

Sorry, haters, but this is a fantastic book: an Appalachian Gothic with a low-level fever that runs alternately warm and chilling. Frazier has left the 19th century and the picaresque form to produce a cleverly knitted thriller about a tough young woman in the 1960s who has given up on the people of her small town and gone to live alone in the woods.

Sorry, Kakutani, this one may be a hit.

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