Exciting Times (Dolan) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
[A] wry and bracing tale of class and privilege…. Ava is hyper-verbal and exacting, and… [her] written correspondences—social media posts and emails she labors over, analyzes, doesn't send or sends by accident—become increasingly vulnerable in their disclosures…. They form a digital counterbalance to Ava's aloof and guarded in-person presence, and capture perfectly the nauseating insecurity of growing up today.
New York Times Book Review


In fewer than 250 pages, [Dolan] has captured the touchstone millennial tension between sardonicism and sincerity—the electric ambivalence of figuring out how to be a person in these times.… Exciting Times is a funny novel (both haha and weird), resisting the pull of melodrama in favor of a sharp point of view and… engaged with the ways class, inequality and politics manifest in social life.
Los Angeles Times


The prevailing experience of [Dolan’s] endeavor is one of invigoration. Exciting Times is… edifying, funny, tender, plangent and rich with the sensibility of an individual who, condemned to conditions that are not of her making, finds the space that she needs to take flight, and who proceeds as the person she was.
Seattle Times


I wouldn’t be surprised if it emerges as the book of the summer.… A rich, sharply witty story made out of the frictions and complexities of young love…. Kept me rapt until the final page.
The Times (UK)


A funny, smart, contemporary love story.
Sunday Times (UK)


A dazzling debut.… Dolan’s writing is precise, acerbic and enviably good, and her characters are perfectly drawn.
Evening Standard (UK)


Whipsmart…. A modern love story…. Exciting Times is an impressive, cerebral debut written with brio and humour… The observations are keen, heartfelt and delivered in a brutally nonchalant style…. Heralding for sure a new star in Irish writing.
Irish Times


A wonderfully sharp, comic writer, adept at making wisecracks in the caustic, knock-em-off, knock-em-down tradition of Dorothy Parker, Joan Rivers and Nora Ephron.… [Ava] is Bridget Jones’s sour sister, or Bridget Jones marinaded in vinegar…. I found myself purring with pleasure. I loved Exciting Times’s snap and its bite.… This is comic writing at the highest level.
Daily Mail (UK)


A love triangle like you've never seen it before.… Wry and sardonic, Dolan relentlessly examines untold truths about love, classicism, and ambition.
Marie Claire


Wry, stylish…. In this witty satire of the haves and have nots, Dolan explores tender, insightful truths about the vagaries of modern love.
Esquire


In Dolan’s wry, tender debut, a young Dubliner navigates her love life and sexuality.… Dolan’s smart, brisk debut works as charming comedy of manners, though it packs less of a punch when it comes to class consciousness.
Publishers Weekly


This delightfully sardonic, insightful debut picks apart life at the whims of the economy, love, and self-sabotage.… Overall, this surprising novel is believable and piercingly written  —Henrietta Verma, Credo Reference, New York, NY
Library Journal


Volleying dialogue, rich interiority, and perceptive writing on money, politics, and class…. A clever and deep novel of sex, connection, and the complexities of self expression.
Booklist


A young millennial finds herself in a love triangle with a man and woman.… Dolan’s preoccupation with power is often couched in humor but always expertly observed. Her elegantly simple writing allows her ideas and musings to shine. A refreshingly wry and insightful debut.
Kirkus Reviews