"Who do we blame when a good kid makes one disastrous mistake? The parents? The child? The bad influences lingering at the margins? Lynn Strong’s captivating novel explores questions of blame and guilt from many points of view, all of them rendered with tenderness, compassion, and surprising humor. A little bit Lionel Shriver, a little bit Virginia Woolf. Hold Still is a terrific debut."
"Ms. Strong has a highly sensitive awareness of the special kind of disappointment—and the painfully undying connection—that comes with family. There’s mercifully little armchair psychology about Ellie and no blatantly obvious reason that she should be so damaged or careless. She just is, and in that way feels authentic."
New York Times - John Williams
"[An] assured, illuminating examination of the complex ties between mothers and daughters."
Atlanta Journal-Constitution - Gina Webb
"Haunting…Strong’s characters are achingly detailed, and undeniably real."
"Lynn Steger Strong has a great eye for the visible world, a near perfect sensor for those of us living in it, and a deep compassion and curiosity for how we go astray and find ourselves again."
"Lynn Strong is clearly a spy. The espionage-level attention paid to the most seemingly invisible things and words and gestures that comprise the world, well, I feel like Strong broke a code that nobody else has broken. She allows us to better understand what we often see but fail to fully comprehend. Also this novel is really heartbreaking. And I loved these characters. ‘Strong debut’ has a whole new meaning after Hold Still . Keep an eye on Strong, that’s my advice. And not because she’s likely watching you. Because she is a writer worth watching."
"A tragedy lurks at the heart of Lynn Steger Strong’s achingly sad, achingly beautiful debut novel. How do you forgive your child after she does the unthinkable? How can you not? Hold Still quietly builds to a perfect crescendo, an ending that is both surprising and true."
"In this compelling debut, Lynn Steger Strong paints a portrait of familial love that is real, visceral, and all the more dangerous for being unconditional. Her characters show us that loving someone deeply can be a fraught act—and trying to gain distance from them, even more so."
Ms. Strong has a highly sensitive awareness of the special kind of disappointment—and the painfully undying connection—that comes with family. There's mercifully little armchair psychology about Ellie and no blatantly obvious reason that she should be so damaged or careless. She just is, and in that way feels authentic.
The New York Times - John Williams
"Strong has produced a family saga both familiar and strange, told in kaleidoscopic detail, dancing back and forth in time, balletically slow yet always knife tight, philosophical, interrogative and smart. I read with my heart in my throat."
What keeps the pages turning is the desperate, botched attempts at familial love between family members, none of whom seem to know quite what they want, bringing to mind the Tolstoy quote, ‘Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.’ Here, the mercurial rendering of this particular unhappy family makes it a heart-wrenching read in its very own way.”
2015-12-23
