The Book of Famous Iowans

A New York Times Notable Book
 

“Much of the extraordinary narrative power in Douglas Bauer’s third novel . . . accumulates through the retrospective musings and reflections of Will Vaughn, a grown man determined to pay elegiac tribute to the single, haunting love of his life – a mother who cherished then abandoned him . . . Douglas Bauer is a
consummate storyteller, his prose is hypnotic, charged with beauty and pain his characters drawn with intelligent, pristine detail.The Book of Famous Iowans is a novel . . . possessing tremendous heart and that much-less-affable quality, soul.”
—Melissa Pritchard, The Chicago Tribune Book Review
 
“The voice that Mr. Bauer has created . . . is a wonderfully supple, easily modulated voice, equally capable of conveying boyish confusion and grown-up melancholy, youthful naïveté and adult skepticism. He makes us both feel the young Will’s shock, anger and disbelief as he learns of his mother’s betrayal, and appreciate Will’s grown-up efforts to come to terms with those long-ago events.”
—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
 
“What makes the book so compelling is Douglas Bauer’s meticulous, poignant rendering of the insular rural setting and the characters . . . The Book of Famous Iowans is a stunning exploration of childhood loss and its lasting reverberations.”
—Lynne Sharon Schwartz, The Wall Street Journal

Excerpt from The Book of Famous Iowans (.pdf)

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