Reviews
"In sparkling and witty prose, Baker reminds readers why he's one of the masters of the contemporary novel." - Kirkus , STARRED REVIEW, "In sparkling and witty prose, Baker reminds readers why he's one of the masters of the contemporary novel." - Kirkus , STARRED REVIEW "If you love Nicholson Baker's fiction, Traveling Sprinkler will easily feed your jones."- Shelf Awareness "Baker's endearingly comedic, covertly philosophical love story, spiked with intriguing-even alarming-little-known facts, mischievously celebrates song and silence, steadfastness and loving-kindness"- Booklist , "In sparkling and witty prose, Baker reminds readers why he's one of the masters of the contemporary novel." - Kirkus , STARRED REVIEW "If you love Nicholson Baker's fiction, Traveling Sprinkler will easily feed your jones."- Shelf Awareness "Baker's endearingly comedic, covertly philosophical love story, spiked with intriguing-even alarming-little-known facts, mischievously celebrates song and silence, steadfastness and loving-kindness"- Booklist "There are lots of reasons to love Traveling Sprinkler: Baker gets sweeter with each new book, and underneath the sweetness lie witty arguments about poetry and song and taste."-Lorin Stein, The Paris Review , "In sparkling and witty prose, Baker reminds readers why he's one of the masters of the contemporary novel." - Kirkus , STARRED REVIEW "If you love Nicholson Baker's fiction, Traveling Sprinkler will easily feed your jones."- Shelf Awareness "Baker's endearingly comedic, covertly philosophical love story, spiked with intriguing-even alarming-little-known facts, mischievously celebrates song and silence, steadfastness and loving-kindness"- Booklist "There are lots of reasons to love Traveling Sprinkler : Baker gets sweeter with each new book, and underneath the sweetness lie witty arguments about poetry and song and taste."-Lorin Stein, The Paris Review "We're at the point where saying that Nicholson Baker is one of our truly greatest writers isn't pure hyperbole…and with [ Traveling Sprinkler ], which features a return from the main character of 2009's The Anthologist , he's piling another great book atop his impressive stack." Flavorwire, 10 Must-Read Books for September "Nicholson Baker's utterly charming new novel, Traveling Sprinkler , is discursive, quirky, and consistently engaging....an unmitigated pleasure to read...His characters struggle with grief, regret and existential angst, but they are happy, lucky, warm-hearted people-and we are eager to remain in their company for as long as their author will let us."-Raina Lipsitz, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette "Paul [Chowder] is such a figure: idiosyncratic, unashamed of his quirks and ticks and odd obsessions, not unlike the author who created him....an example of the novel as slice of life, full of digressions that are themselves the point."-David Ulin, Los Angeles Times "As always with Baker, the many pages spent discussing the details of a protagonist's activities and interests can take on a hypnotic allure . . . Baker's great achievement is to make description and characterization do the work of narration . . . Baker can write pages of transfixing details that end up revealing the emotional workings of his narrators." -Ken Tucker, The Daily Beast "You read [Nicholson Baker] for the way he wields his enviable vocabulary to capture the often hilarious and surprisingly intriguing and endearing mental machinations of his eccentric characters. You read him because, at his best, he makes you sit up and take notice of things you tend to overlook."-Heller McAlpin, NPR.com "In Traveling Sprinkler , a sequel of sorts to The Anthologist , Nicholson Baker resurrects the incorrigible procrastinator Paul Chowder...The literary sequel is a rare beast to begin with; Mr. Baker here joins the ranks of D.H. Lawrence, Evelyn Waugh and-I suppose if we wanted to go there-John Milton, all writers who dared to pen a follow-up to a masterpiece....Baker is as good a cultural critic as he is a novelist." -Michael Miller, The New York Observer, "In sparkling and witty prose, Baker reminds readers why he's one of the masters of the contemporary novel." - Kirkus , STARRED REVIEW "If you love Nicholson Baker's fiction, Traveling Sprinkler will easily feed your jones."- Shelf Awareness "Baker's endearingly comedic, covertly philosophical love story, spiked with intriguing-even alarming-little-known facts, mischievously celebrates song and silence, steadfastness and loving-kindness"- Booklist "There are lots of reasons to love Traveling Sprinkler : Baker gets sweeter with each new book, and underneath the sweetness lie witty arguments about poetry and song and taste."-Lorin Stein, The Paris Review "We're at the point where saying that Nicholson Baker is one of our truly greatest writers isn't pure hyperbole…and with [ Traveling Sprinkler ], which features a return from the main character of 2009's The Anthologist , he's piling another great book atop his impressive stack." Flavorwire, 10 Must-Read Books for September
