Sugar Street

I don’t know when I’ve been as jolted and delighted by the ending of a novel as I recently was by the ending of Sugar Street, a deft punch of a novel by Jonathan Dee, that had the phrase “an American Dostoyevsky” running around in my head. Dee creates a true page-turner out of simple materials and the result is a troubling and stimulating look at real American life - at the fix that materialism plus the information state has got us into. It’s also very funny – George SandersDee’s subtle skill lies in how seductive he makes all this strenuous rationalising on the narrator’s part … Sugar Street’s symbolism does just as much to keep you on edge, bringing us queasily close to a self-cancelling antihero who is simultaneously sent up and - you suspect - just a little bit admired * Observer *Part of the power of Sugar Street lies in its style … in the prose you can feel the adrenaline of [the protagonist’s] initial flight wearing off , his life shrinking down to a couple of city blocks . It’s brilliantly done * Guardian *This one will keep you guessing … An original and fascinating concept that’ll keep you hooked and turning the pages * The Sunday Post *Pacy and disturbing * Mail on Sunday *[A] compelling, original novel * Independent *The politics of the story become explicit, terrifyingly so, in its final pages… Sugar Street ends by packing a punch that the reader won’t see coming * Prisma *Possessing the pace and plot surprises of a thriller, Dee’s novel also manages to be a searing portrait of contemporary America * Choice *Dee’s style is clean, raw, terse [and] perfectly paced. The voice conveys a yearning for something better against a bone-deep cynicism… You sure won’t see the ending coming * Financial Times *A propulsive thriller * Observer *Sugar Street is expertly done, with a good balance of provocative thinking and surprising developments * The Times *This is an elegant, spare and thoroughly engaging novel, with a narrator who goes from potential bad guy to potential victim… and a genuinely affecting questioning of whether it’s possible to do the “right thing” without incurring judgment – Claire Looby * Irish Times *

Jonathan Dee is the author of seven novels, including The Locals, A Thousand Pardons, and The Privileges, which was a finalist for the 2011 Pulitzer Prize. A recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation, he teaches in the graduate writing program at Syracuse University.

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