Lookaway Lookaway (Barnhardt) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
A dishier array of secrets animates Lookaway, Lookaway, Wilton Barnhardt’s big, enveloping novel about a status-conscious North Carolina family.
Janet Maslin - New York Times


Lacerating but affectionate, as exuberant as it is shrewd, Lookaway, Lookaway is a Southern novel so sure-footed the only real question for Barnhardt is, "What took you so long?"…Southern literature is full of humor but strangely short on satire. Barnhardt gleefully leaps into this gap like a man with a very long to-do list, eviscerating rituals and rascals ranging from sorority rush and Civil War re-enactments to back-stabbing church ladies…. Lookaway, Lookaway is that rare thing: an excellent long novel that's not long enough.
Malcolm Jones - New York Times Book Review


Sprawling, generous, delightful.... I didn't want it to end. Lookaway is both dishy an dliterary, but like all good novels, there's a nourishing quality as well.
Charlotte Observer

Scathing yet touching, this is a delicious saga of Old South meets New, a story of America lurching toward the future.
People

One helluva barn burner.
Elle

North Carolina native Barnhardt’s frothy, satirical latest is Southern gothic at its most decadent and dysfunctional.... [T]he sprawling saga of an esteemed clan’s fall from grace and fortune spools out in fits and starts.... As the scandals pile up...this mess of a family has nowhere left to go but up—well, not if they can help it.
Publishers Weekly


Told with great humor and precision, Barnhardt's fourth novel (after Show World) is a searing look at the new South, with all its contradictions. Verdict: Fans of Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections will appreciate this satisfying, multigenerational tale. A fresh take on the family saga told with both Southern charm and pathos. —Jennifer B. Stidham, Houston Community Coll., Northeast
Library Journal


Dixieland was never so dishy nor dysfunctional as in Barnhardt’s ribald send-up of the conflagration that ensues when Old South tradition confronts New South tackiness…. Barnhardt’s satirical scorching of southern culture comes in second only to Sherman’s fiery march.
Booklist


(Starred review.) [A] revelation: witty, savage and bighearted all at once, it is the Southern novel for the 21st century. The Jarvis-Johnston clan is a Charlotte, N.C., family of distinction; they have all that matters to society.... But, as each family member is revealed...the ruin of the family becomes imminent.... Barnhardt masterfully reimagines the Southern gothic: There is every kind of sordid deed committed, but there is also an abundance of humanity and grace.
Kirkus Reviews