... an absolutely splendid and entertaining book. It's full of great gags and descriptions, and handles the difficult structure ... with a bubbly, tumbling assurance.
– Kevin Ireland, Quote Unquote
When alter-ego Eric lets loose it is laugh-a-minute stuff. Concise, witty, a bit close to the bone – but definitely funny.
– Miles Moodie, Waikato Times
Clever and unpredictable ... stimulating and entertaining.
– Owen Marshall, judge of the 1995 North & South / Reed Fiction Award
... stiletto-sharp ... an accomplished debut novel.
– Graeme Lay, North & South
... deceptively casual, casually deceitful ...
Satirical, eccentric, compassionate, Telling Stories is a delight. It'll stand a second reading to get the full complexity, the cross-referencing and allusions, the elegant recklessness.
– Ronda Cooper, Metro
... carefully constructed, consistently comical ...
– Bede Scott, Sunday Star Times
... cunningly plotted ... fiendishly twisted ...
– David Eggleton, Listener
... witty, irreverent, satirical, outrageous ...
– Ian Dixon, Christchurch Press
I found Geoff Palmer an exciting new voice in our literature and hope he has more stories to tell of equal challenge to the imagination.
– Howard Warner, New Zealand Books
Geoff Palmer in Telling Stories plays realism off against post-modernism, as inept Steven Spalding is depicted transforming his increasingly dangerous misadventures into stories concerning the confident Eric Dombey, with the two finally becoming inextricably crossed, producing a book that can be read as both an implicit attack on post-modern moral relativism and a post-modern undermining of narrative certainty.
– The Oxford History of New Zealand Literature, edited by Terry Sturm