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Books

Grove Press
Grove Press
Grove Press

The Wild Life of Sailor and Lula

by Barry Gifford

“[The Wild Life of Sailor and Lula] is imbued with charm, its snapshot characters propelling the book in bursts of manic energy. [Gifford’s] characters inhabit a surreal world that is both hilarious and sad . . . naively sentimental yet tough as nails.” –The New York Times Book Review

  • Imprint Grove Paperback
  • Page Count 320
  • Publication Date May 22, 1996
  • ISBN-13 978-0-8021-3454-7
  • Dimensions 5.5" x 8.25"
  • US List Price $13.00

About The Book

Tags Literary

Praise

“[The Wild Life of Sailor and Lula] is imbued with charm, its snapshot characters propelling the book in bursts of manic energy. [Gifford’s] characters inhabit a surreal world that is both hilarious and sad . . . naively sentimental yet tough as nails.””The New York Times Book Review

“An amazing work destined to excite and delight . . . a funny, thrilling saga.””The Philadelphia Inquirer

“Tossed against a backdrop of Southern fried mishaps, Gifford’s cruel sequel is action Americana in its full neon glory, and a road-trip you’re not likely to soon forget.””Paper

“Barry Gifford is a stylist in the manner if Tom McGuane and Joy Williams, with the heart of Raymond Carver; Gifford’s sense of life takes him back to life itself as it is lived now.””Jim Harrison

“Intense . . . a rogue’s galley of gangsters and bad girls.””Seattle Post-Intelligencer

‘sailor and Lula say ordinary things that linger and resonate in the air like a windchime of haiku.

. . . The way Barry Gifford lets people talk articulates everything about their unfamiliar inner lives, and ours.””Boston Globe

‘sailor and Lula are just dingbat crazy in love. . . . [Their story] sidesteps every expectation.””Los Angeles Times

“Gifford sketches marvelous characters as deftly as William Faulkner and animates them in scene after scene of hilarious dialogue. [Gifford] is a storytelling talent.”‘digby Diehl, Playboy

“Wonderful . . . fast and furious.””New Orleans Times-Picayune

“[Gifford] writes sort of chicken-fried noir with utterly original rhythm, and dialogue and dialect that Tom Wolfe would kill to call his own. Like if John Updike had an evil twin that grew up on the wrong side of the tracks and wrote funny . . . Gifford has genuine affection for his two leads [that] rubs off on the reader . . . a romp.””Patrick Beach, Des Moines Sunday Register

“Barry Gifford is all the proof the world will ever need that a writer who listens with his heart is capable of telling anyone’s story.””Armistead Maupin, San Francisco Chronicle

“[Sailor and Lula’s] talk comes from the hot dark of the innards, reminding us that the world is “wild at heart” and that we fear and love it that way””The Washington Post Book World

“Gritty tales from the heart of wildness.””Houston Post

“Fans of Wild at Heart will be eager to catch up with Sailor and Lula . . . and Gifford’s portrayal of his hard-living, often ruthless Southern characters is vivid and crisp . . . rich and engrossing . . . disturbing yet hilarious and . . . somehow unbelievable.””Hartford Courant