Misfortune of Marion Palm (Culliton) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
Half of the delight in Emily Culliton's wholly delightful debut novel…lies in the way the book, like its title character, defies expectations at every turn…A theft, a fugitive: The plot, taken together with the novel's short, immersive chapters and the escalating risks that confront Marion and her family, locates The Misfortune of Marion Palm somewhere on the thriller continuum. It would make good airplane reading—or motel reading, for readers who link Marion's name and her swag to Psycho. But the book is also sunnier than that suggests, part satire and part Odyssey into the humbler precincts of Brooklyn…And through it all we get the spunky, homely, larcenous Marion, who in her temperament if not her background is like a…cousin to Bernadette Fox, the exasperated Seattle housewife of Maria Semple's Where'd You Go, Bernadette, who also ditches her family. All of this makes for a witty, sneakily feminist kind of crime story.
Gregory Cowles - New York Times Book Review


Talk about getting away from it all. Marion Palm has pocketed $180,000 from her daughters' school coffers and gone on the lam, no disguise necessary. 'A homely woman,' she thinks to herself, 'is an invisible thing.' But what is her plan, and is she ever coming back? A whip-smart, thoroughly original debut (A Summer's Best Books).
People


(Starred review.) Culliton’s wonderful and sharp debut novel invites readers into the mind and motivations of an unlikable and remarkable woman.… Culliton’s prose is effortless and wickedly clever; its ability to condone and condemn in the most succinct way is a testament to the author’s storytelling and characterization skills.
Publishers Weekly


(Starred review.) This debut novel has what many others lack: a wicked sense of humor. Verdict: With her mordant wit, deft plotting, and clever storytelling, Culliton is a young novelist to watch. —Leslie Patterson
Library Journal


(Starred review.) Oddly comic—think Miranda July—writing.… Culliton's assured and clever novel reads more like that of a seasoned novelist than a debut.… Readers who have wished the narration of The Royal Tenenbaums was an actual book need look no further than The Misfortune of Marion Palm. —Kathy Sexton
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