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The Testing Of Luther Albright
A Novel
by MacKenzie Bezos


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In this debut novel from Bezos (the wife of Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos), a Sacramento civil engineer finds his life beginning to crumble after an earthquake sets off a series of events in his personal and work lives.

Fourth Estate, 256 pages
08/02/2005
$23.95

ISBN: 006075141X

Fiction
General Literature & Fiction

All reviews are classified as one of five grades: Outstanding (4 points), Favorable (3), Mixed (2), Unfavorable (1) and Terrible (0). To calculate the Metascore, we divide total points achieved by the total points possible (i.e., 4 x the number of reviews), with the resulting percentage (multiplied by 100) being the Metascore. Learn more...

Daily Telegraph Neel Mukhergee

Bezos scales the treacherous cliffs of the human heart with a wisdom, ease and empathetic understanding that most writers struggle to attain in a lifetime.

Los Angeles Times Susan Salter Reynolds

Bezos is a smooth and terrifying writer, incisive like Denis Johnson, a noticer of the tiniest moods and gestures in relationships. [11 Sep 2005]

San Francisco Chronicle Debra Spark

[The Testing of Luther Albright] succeeds in its depiction of the damage a withholding person can do. It offers, too, insightful glimpses of office life; subtle scenes of unarticulated conflict; intriguing moments of familial deception; astute psychological observations; precise, elegant writing; and so on.

The New York Times Book Review Kate Bolick

The slow pileup of events takes on an unexpected, if mild, urgency.

The Onion A.V. Club Noel Murray

[Bezos] makes the meaning of "lost" devastatingly plain.

The Independent Lucy Rouse

A compelling portrait of the incremental disappointments and failures to communicate that can dull any close relationship.

The Observer Hephzibah Anderson

[Bezos] is not afraid of silence, and this gives her streamlined fable its power.

Entertainment Weekly Jennifer Reese

Bezos lays bare the inner life of the repressed American Everyman in her exquisite, excruciating portrait of Luther, a buttoned-up government engineer who builds dams in California's Central Valley.

Library Journal Susanne Wells

Within the emotional minutiae, Bezos drops in some breathtakingly truthful observations. [15 Jun 2005, p. 56]

Kirkus Reviews

Bezos's finely calibrated first novel seethes with ironies.

Publishers Weekly

Bezos... captures the extraordinary in the ordinary, revealing a subtle imagination and a startling talent for naturalism.

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The Testing Of Luther Albright A Novel by MacKenzie Bezos

The Testing Of Luther Albright
A Novel
by MacKenzie Bezos