Critical Praise

"Fowler loves raising questions about where reality ends and imagination begins....If you're willing to take chances on writers who color outside the lines, try Fowler. She's a true original and one of the funniest people currently writing in the English language"

——Minneapolis Star Tribune

"Fowler's authentically detailed and clever novel is frequently digressive, but the digressions charm. Deadpan irony ('The Baldishes had been among the first to explore decorating with deer') and quirky characters worthy of Dickens raise the entertainment quotient....Fowler depicts our nation's past as more surreal than real while at the same time slamming her book out of the ballpark"

——Publishers Weekly

"Ms. Fowler's willingness to take detours, her unapologetic delight in the odd historical fact, her shadowy humor, and the elegant unruliness of her language all elevate her story from the picaresque to the grand."

——The New York Times Book Review

"A combination of inquiry, skepticism, and sympathy voiced wth a zany appeal, a hint of magic...Its flavor is tart, comic, and unreliable"

——The Los Angeles Times

"Smart, wry, and just this side of insane...A remarkable treasure...Enchanting"

——The Washington Post

"The Sweetheart Season is the sort of novel that makes the reader want to meet the author....The characters are entertaining and well-defined. The plot twists are unexpected, and Fowler's witty writing is a joy to read"

——USA Today

"The Sweetheart Season is full of sparkling wit and flat-out good writing about a town where someone can be suspected of putting on airs simply by sporting an 'out of town haircut.' In territory long staked out by Garrison Keillor, Fowler's book reads like the best of Lake Wobegon and then some"

——The Philadelphia Inquirer

"The Sweetheart Season is a brilliantly evoked re-creation of the post-war period in small-town America, filled with well-drawn characters....A complex mixture of generosity and skepticism, a warm meditation on and paean to those most romantic American traits: the propensity for optimism in reduced circumstances, a gullible faith in the unexpectedness and persistence of love, and an unshakable sense of irony that is large enough to embrace both humor and affection"

——San Francisco Chronicle