Friendswood: A Novel

(Paperback)

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Description

Friendswood, Texas, is a small Gulf Coast town of church suppers, high school football games, oil rigs on the horizon and hurricane weather. When tragedy rears its head with an industrial leak that kills and sickens residents, it pulls on the common thread that runs through the community, intensifying everything. Steinke explores what happens when families are trapped in the ambiguity of history's missteps, when the actions of a few change the lives and well-being of many.

Reviews

One of Mashable's Top 24 Summer Books of 2014

"Masterfully observed . . . The characters' attempts to grapple with the legacy of this destruction form the tender and harrowing heart of the story. . . . This is a place you live in as you read."O, The Oprah Magazine

Texas is a huge, complicated state, and it's sometimes a difficult one for authors to get right. Not so for Rene Steinke, whoseFriendswooddoes a near-perfect job capturing the feel not just of the titular city but of southeast Texas as a whole. . . . One of the most interesting novels to be set in the Lone Star State in quite a while.NPR, Great Reads of 2014

"Friendswood, the lyrical new novel by National Book Award Finalist Ren Steinke, is the kind of 300-plus-page book that devours you in a couple of afternoons. The prose is nimble but sure-footed, the narrative suspenseful, and the characters universally recognizableregardless of your familiarity with the small-town Texas paradigm of church, high school football, and a stream of background music from such Southern songwriting eminences as Porter Wagoner, George Jones, and Patsy Cline. . . . Friendswood is a rare blend of beautiful, suspenseful, and seemingly artless proseyou may stay up past bedtime to find out how everything turns outbut also of optimism: hope minus any form of proselytization. Like the country singers who are quietly woven throughout the narrative, shrugging off suffering through song, Friendswood offers an unassuming remedy for the troubles we humans always seem to find ourselves in: love thy neighbor. Simple right Doesnt hurt to be reminded of it. And its also one hell of a read."The Literary Review

The characters feel very real . . . A moving exploration of community and loss.Dallas Morning News

Spectacular . . . Like a painter, Steinke draws stunning scenes of small town Texas life: Ranch houses. Friday night football games. Church fundraisers. Like Sherwood, Ohio or Sinclair Lewiss Main Street, Friendswood is also a vision of modern American life . . . Ultimately a story about hope and American character . . . one of the best books of the summer.Patrik Henry Bass, NY1

"Years after an oil refinerys toxic chemicals have caused death and illness among the residents of a fictional Texas hamlet, the affected families struggle to move on.Then a real estate tycoon lobbies to rebuild homes on the abandoned site, and the neighbors clash over money, justice, and the truth about this mysterious tract of land."Woman's Day

"The topics in Rene Steinke's new novel, Friendswood may be heavy . . . but you'll relate easily to the characters. . . . Long after you finish the book, you'll still wonder how the people in in are doing."Redbook

"The big events that rock this Texas community are nothing compared with what happens behind closed doors."Cosmopolitan

"A sharp, observant novel about the hard realities of challenging the status quo."Kirkus

This is a book of rare power, tempered by equally rare grace. Steinke's sense of this small Texas town, with its explosive and interconnected lives and deaths, is absolutely masterful. The reader is pulled into the story immediately, emotionally, morally, completely. What's more, it's a page-turner of the most explosive quality. Steinke torques the plot tighter and tighter, until the suspense is nearly unbearableyet never loses sight of her character's humanity, nor sacrifices a word of her beautiful prose. This is work by an author operating at the peak of her authority, to be sure."Elizabeth Gilbert

"A compassionate and compelling novel that explores the points of view of multiple people living in a run-over small town where everyone is as bound to the land around them as they are bound to each other, no matter how much they wish otherwise. The past is never quite past, and the mystery of how it all fits together is very seductive. Steinke gives us a rich and poignant story of human loneliness rendered through evocative, poetic and beautiful prose.Dana Spiotta, author of Stone Arabia

I loved this book for many reasons, not least its hardscrabble, plaintive tone and atmosphere of looming suspense. All of America is here. This is the one we've been waiting for.Wesley Stace, author of Wonderkid

Ren Steinkes Friendswood is as arresting, haunting, and heartbreaking as contemporary narrative comes. With lyrical and emotional depth, with an empathy only the greatest writers possess, Steinke shines a light into the shadows of the American spirit and doesn't for a moment avert her gaze.David Grand, author of Louse and Mount Terminus



Praise for Friendswood

Masterfully observed. O, The Oprah Magazine

Steinkes sensitive exploration of tangled human connections reminds us that love and friendship will go a long way toward seeing us through our trials. Los Angeles Times

Spectacular . . . Like a painter, Steinke draws stunning scenes of small town Texas life: Ranch houses. Friday night football games. Church fundraisers. Like Sherwood, Ohio , or Sinclair Lewiss Main Street, Friendswood is also a vision of modern American life. Patrik Henry Bass, NY1

Author Bio

Rene Steinke is the author of the critically acclaimed novels The Fires and Holy Skirts, which was a finalist for the 2005 National Book Award. She is the director of the MFA program in creative writing at Fairleigh Dickinson University. Steinke lives in Brooklyn.