Mars Room (Kushner) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
[Kushner’s] best book yet, another big step forward.
Jonathan Franzen - Guardian (UK)


A searing, tragic look at life in the prison-industrial complex, covering poverty, sex work, mass incarceration, education, trauma, suffering, love, and redemption. Somehow, Kushner's rapid-fire, imaginative prose makes it seems effortless.
Vogue


Stunning…a gorgeously written depiction of survival and the absurd and violent facets of life in prison.
Buzzfeed


(Starred review) [H]eartbreaking and unforgettable…. Romy is a remarkable protagonist; her guilt is never in question, but her choices are understandable. [The] novel…  deserves to be read with the same level of pathos, love, and humanity with which it clearly was written.
Publishers Weekly


Kushner is back with another stunner… without a shred of sentimentality, Kushner makes us see these characters as humans who are survivors, getting through life the only way they are able given their circumstances.
Library Journal


(Starred review) In smart, determined, and vigilant Romy, Kushner, an acclaimed writer of exhilarating skills, has created a seductive narrator of tigerish intensity... This is a gorgeously eviscerating novel of incarceration writ large… [is] executed with artistry and edgy wit.
Booklist


Another searing look at life on the margins…. This is, fundamentally, a novel about poverty and how our structures of power do not work for the poor, and Kushner does not flinch.… [T]he honest depiction of prison life is so gripping. An unforgiving look at a brutal system.
Kirkus Reviews