PRAISE FOR The Reasons I Won’t Be Coming
“All of Perlman’s stories remain undeniably assured and carefully devised, and hold out nine complete and whole worlds for us to discover and contemplate.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“Perlman’s voices draw you in and hold you. . . . A gradual introduction to the full breadth of Perlman’s talents. ‘A Tale in Two Cities’ [the final story in the collection] is almost worth the price of the book by itself.”—The Boston Globe
“Fans of Perlman’s grapplings with both the minutiae and the sweeping ‘big questions’ of life won’t be disappointed. . . . As a writer, Perlman’s obsession is with epic yet individual moments of truth when everything—from marriage to career to a person’s innate sense of right and wrong—seems up for grabs. Ambiguous indeed, but never less than compulsively readable.”—Elle
“The nine stories serve as a varied introduction to an accomplished stylist and storyteller. . . . Present[s] satisfying rewards for the discerning reader.”—The Seattle Times
“Coldly luminous . . . dead-on . . . Perlman in full: mystery, tight dialogue, layers of irony.”—Publishers Weekly
“Impressive . . . Evident in all of these stories are the writer’s talent and ambition. . . . Perlman shows he has the skills to fully manifest the ambitions, ideas, perspectives, and plots for the stories he wants to tell. . . . The Reasons I Won’t Be Coming is proof positive that Perlman will continue to grow as a restless, thoughtful, and interesting writer.”—The Miami Herald
“Unashamedly various without being feeble, a series of exercises in voice, perspective, and style, deal in violence, exile, and much else besides. . . . Deftly switching perspectives is his most impressive technique . . . yet Perlman’s work isn’t all juggling tricks: at times, he manages to pack whole lives into a few paragraphs.”
—The New York Times Book Review
“Hopelessly conscious of embarrassing personal truths—the sort we realize, then yearn to forget—Perlman’s characters are erudite specialists of anomie. Hyperliterate and brutally funny, alternatively self-assured and self-loathing, they are mostly noble and deserving of our sympathy, even if we’re implicated in our schadenfreude. The effect might be depressing if Perlman didn’t show such care in imbuing his characters with devious charm. . . . Scant evidence exists to suggest that casual flirtation with Perlman’s fiction will not end in total obsession.”—The Believer
“Perlman has a winner with this collection of nine eloquent short stories that examine the various natures of the human condition via a cast of remarkable characters.”—The Sacramento Bee
“Perlman mines pure narrative gold. . . . Insistently readable . . . provocative and powerful fiction from one of the best new writers on the international scene.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Readers intrigued by Perlman’s well-received Seven Types of Ambiguity will be delighted that he has upped the ante with nine stories whose characters range from lawyers to immigrants. . . . This story collection showcases the talent of young, Australian-born Perlman. . . . Expansively written with admirable control and generous detail, this is an excellent collection and is highly recommended for fiction collections.”—Library Journal