|
Book Riot article on Toni Morrison quotes Manzella's review on Colson Whitehead's Nickel Boys.
|
"Writer Abby Manzella said that The Nickel Boys 'invoke[s] a Toni Morrison-esque poetic simplicity that speaks to a toxic past that continues to haunt us.'"
|
|
Comments quoted on the Sarabande Website for Elena Passarello's Animals Strike Curious Poses
|
"I jump up and down about [this book] whenever I get the chance. . . . It definitely requires an actively engaged reader because of the shifts of styles throughout, but I enjoy the trust she puts in her readers, and I can feel how her hands had to get dirty to craft such artistic pieces."
—Abby Manzella, Book Marks |
|
Overall, it is a tour de force that demonstrates the many tools that Carmen Maria Machado wields as a writer. This is a difficult book and a glorious one. The book begins with a piling up of epigraphs, page after page, keeping the reader from the official start of the story ... Even as the tone of each section resets for a new trope, there is also a strong underlying narrative that carries the reader throughout. Of course, because of the risks of this type of artistic variability, some of these section titles are more remarkable in how they are integrated into the style of the segment than others. When they work best, they add a force to the whole chapter ... Each rendering kept me rapt ... She nimbly uses language so that the full weight of the words creeps quietly upon you each time.
--Abby Manzella, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |
|
"The Yellow House is a meandering and engaging history, captivating us as it covers vast terrain ... this work is more than a personal memoir. It is a mapping of a place and of a family, moving beyond the literal representation of space into the inner dimensions of the Brooms’ world, functioning as both an intimate and cultural history ... With the images, she creates the intimacy of flipping through a photo album, and she allows the people who experienced events to dictate the history ... The matriarch guides. This means that Sarah Broom is intentionally yielding part of the story to her sources ... Ms. Broom herself is adept at rendering the material world so that it exposes larger, symbolic implications ... Though the shifts between chapters can be momentarily jarring, those changes in topic are also this book’s strength ... We need more memoirs like this." --Abby Manzella, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |
|
"... grips us from the very first line ... invoke[s] a Toni Morrison-esque poetic simplicity that speaks to a toxic past that continues to haunt us ... Some believe they can bury the past, but The Nickel Boys reveals the value and pain of such unearthing of our untold histories and our traumatized soil ... Whitehead’s striking language helps us to feel the enduring nature of these boys and their experiences, and these sidelined black teens see that even respectability politics cannot keep them safe when the system is structured to keep them down ... Whitehead’s haunting prose and position as one of our most formidable contemporary writers takes us there and back for a reckoning."
--Abby Manzella, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |
|
"The writing in this novel is lovely ... In addition to the power of individual lines, there is a power in the surprising tension that builds through the story ... The stories overlap because of the bond between the two main characters of Fiona and Yale from the start, but Makkai finds clever ways to keep those connections growing between not just the two of them, but also among them and characters like Nora and Nico, Fiona’s brother ... This is a book about loss, but it is also about a sense of continuance through the stories we tell, their tellers, and the lessons we learn from them. Those lost will remain in the minds of these characters and, now, in the minds of the reader. The Great Believers is devastating and beautiful, and very worth remembering."
--Abigail G. H. Manzella, The Kenyon Review |
