Reviewers Love ‘Closing Time’
You couldn’t miss Joe Queenan’s Closing Time this weekend; it was reviewed nearly everywhere. As a result, this memoir of the caustic journalist’s painful years growing up in a Philadelphia housing project went to #49 on Amazon; it’s now at #113.
Libraries are showing heavy holds on light ordering.
The local public library was one of the reasons Queenan managed to survive his childhood. Queenan spoke this weekend at the “Free Library Festival” in Philadelphia.
Consumer coverage:
- NPR, Weekend Edition Saturday, interview, Joe Queenan Turns Hard Times Into Humor
- Washington Post, Jonathan Yardley, How to Grow up Cynical
- Los Angeles Times, Review by Dinah Leeney
- Philadelphia Inquirer, Review by Gene Collier
- San Francisco Chronicle, Review by Elaine Margolin
Prepub reviews were also strong:
- Kirkus — “Close to home and heart, this portrait of the artist shows Queenan at the top of his form—his best yet”
- Library Journal — “touching and funny memoir…What gave him hope when he was young was the Catholic Church, the affection of his relatives, and the local public library”
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It is also available in audio from Tantor and in both downloable audio and eBook from OverDrive.