''A Gentleman's Guide to Graceful Living'' is

Michael Dahlie Michael Dahlie (born 1970) is an American novelist. He won a 2010 Whiting Award. Life He graduated from Colorado College, and from the University of Wisconsin–Madison with an MA in European history and from Washington University in St. Lo ...

's debut novel.

Plot introduction

The book is about a man, named Arthur Camden, who is the great-grandson of the owner of a club which is named Maidenhead Grange. The club is a beloved Catskills fly-fishing lounge. The lounge is home to the Hanover Street Fly Casters, a group that was founded in 1878 by 12 Manhattan financiers. Arther burns Maidenhead Grange to the ground. He didn't burn down the club on purpose, he did it by accident. Arthur has also destroyed his marriage and an import-export business that is owned by his family.

Reception

Mike Frechette of ''MostlyFiction.com'' reviewed the book saying "In addition to good writing, the book is also full of action. Perhaps its greatest achievement is that Dahlie elicits sympathy from the reader for a character whose social class does not easily elicit such feelings. Although Arthur is a wealthy, white American male, many readers can appreciate a character who illustrates that the struggle for self-confidence is arduous and lifelong." Hanet Maslin of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' reviewed the book saying "A Gentleman’s Guide to Graceful Living is perhaps too polite to create a big, vulgar epiphany for Arthur. Yet at the end of these understated adventures he seems to have come a long way, even if he is merely stepping out of the confines of a New Yorker cartoon and into the real world. And the next time he packs a suitcase, figuratively speaking, there’ll be something to put inside." The author of ''The Writing On The Wall'',

Lynne Sharon Schwartz Lynne Sharon Schwartz (born March 19, 1939) is an American prose and poetry writer. Biography Schwartz grew up in Brooklyn, the second of three children of Jack M. Sharon, a lawyer and accountant, and Sarah Slatus Sharon; she married Harry Schwa ...

, reviewed the book saying "Michael Dahlie's unusual and wonderful new novel, A Gentleman’s Guide to Graceful Living, is a tour de force that manages to combine mellow wisdom with wicked cleverness. The tragicomic adventures of his hero show a feckless Everyman trying to do the right thing, but constantly stumbling against an unreceptive world. Dahlie is an impressive new writer who walks a fine line between compassion and irony, optimism and despair. There were moments when I didn't know whether to laugh or cry, but I never wanted to stop reading this absorbing book."

External links

The New York Times Book ReviewMichael Dahlie's Site
2008 American novels W. W. Norton & Company books Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award-winning works 2008 debut novels

References

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