Silver Linings Playbook (Quick) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
[C]ompelling and fascinating ... a tour de force.... From the beer-soaked Bacchanalian tailgating to the black holes of despair into which Iggles fans plunge themselves after a defeat, Quick is dead-on.
Bill Lyon - Philadelphia Inquirer


[C]harming debut novel...it is hard not to be moved by the fate of a man who, despite many ordeals, tries to believe in hope and fidelity, not to mention getting through another day with his sanity intact.
Stephen Barbara - Wall Street Journal


It's a charmingly nerve-wracking combination...The book is cinematic, but the writing still shimmers. This nimble, funny read is spiked with enough perception to allow the reader to enjoy Pat's blindly hopeful philosophy without irony.
Barrie Hardymon - NPR


Quick fills the pages with so much absurd wit and true feeling that it's impossible not to cheer for his unlikely hero.
Allison Lynn - People


Pat Peoples, the endearing narrator of this touching and funny debut, is down on his luck. The former high school history teacher has just been released from a mental institution and placed in the care of his mother. Not one to be discouraged, Pat believes he has only been on the inside for a few months—rather than four years—and plans on reconciling with his estranged wife. Refusing to accept that their apart time is actually a permanent separation, Pat spends his days and nights feverishly trying to become the man she had always desired. Our hapless hero makes a friend in Tiffany, the mentally unstable, widowed sister-in-law of his best friend, Ronnie. Each day as Pat heads out for his 10-mile run, Tiffany silently trails him, refusing to be shaken off by the object of her affection. The odd pair try to navigate a timid friendship, but as Pat is unable to discern friend from foe and reality from deranged optimism, every day proves to be a cringe-worthy adventure. Pat is as sweet as a puppy, and his offbeat story has all the markings of a crowd-pleaser.
Publishers Weekly


[I]mmensely likable debut novel.... Pat [Peoples] has returned home to live with his parents in a New Jersey suburb following a stay in a Baltimore mental institution, whence he was committed after reacting irrationally to a breakup with his beloved wife Nikki.... Deftly timed surprises stimulate crucial revelations, and the full truth of both Pat's sufferings and his own egregious contributions to them expand the novel's basically simple comic-domestic texture into something far more disturbing, complex and, eventually, quite moving. If the novel were 50 or so pages shorter, it might have been terrific.... Still, its judicious blending of pop-culture experience with richly persuasive characterizations...make the book a winner.
Kirkus Reviews