The Sarah Book (Paperback)
Staff Reviews
With The Sarah Book, Scott McClanahan understands that, even with the good moments in between, life is about tragedy, about losing everything -- it's death and aging and losing the people you love the most. He talks about this through the history of his dissolving marriage, and all the jealousy, paranoia and loneliness one would expect. But he tells this story with an insightful self-awareness and self-deprecation that's welcomely (and sometimes uncomfortably) honest, incredibly funny, and strangely beautiful.
— Justin"McClanahan's prose is miasmic, dizzying, repetitive. A rushing river of words that reflects the chaos and humanity of the place from which he hails. He writes in an elliptical fever dream so contagious that slowing down is not an option. It would be like putting a doorstop in front of a speeding train. This is not a book you savor. It is one you inhale." -The New York Times
"Part memoir, part hillbilly history, part dream, McClanahan embraces humanity with all its grit, writing tenderly of criminals and outcasts, family and the blood ties that bind us."
--Interview Magazine
"McClanahan's prose is miasmic, dizzying, repetitive. A rushing river of words that reflects the chaos and humanity of the place from which he hails. McClanahan] aims to lasso the moon... He is not a writer of halfmeasures. The man has purpose. This is his symphony, every note designed to resonate, to linger."--New York Times Book Review
The Sarah Book is Scott McClanahan's continuation of the semi-autobiographical portrait he's been writing over the years about his life in West Virginia. This one is his portrait of love.
Scott McClanahan is the author of Hill William, Crapalachia, The Incantations of Daniel Johnson and many more.