Raunchy, poignant, and triumphant in turn—and sometimes manages to be all three at the same time.” — Booklist
Blau’s madcap chase through 1980s L.A. is over-the-top and...a liberal dose of dark humor and an oddly heart-warming ending add to the twisted ride. — Publishers Weekly
“A fun read! Even before the buzzard hits the windshield, THE WONDER BREAD SUMMER will make you feel better about your worst summer vacation.” — Christopher Moore, New York Times-bestselling author of Lamb and A Dirty Job
“A rollicking, irreverent, sweep of a novel. Blau has written another shining, no-holds barred California heart breaker.” — Deborah Reed, author of Carry Yourself Back To Me
“Jessica Anya Blau has taken the story of a young woman’s search for self and rendered it into a hilarious, cocaine-fueled thrill-ride. From its Tarantino-esque opening scene to its twisty final pages, THE WONDER BREAD SUMMER is an unrelenting delight.” — Jon Michaud, author of When Tito Loved Clara
“It’s hard to recall a debut as warm, charming and comically satisfying as The Summer of Naked Swim Parties . . . Blau conveys Jamie’s world with compelling insight and wit . . . [Blau’s] sharp observation and affectionate humor [give] surprising depth to this shimmering novel.” — San Francisco Chronicle
“This book will make you laugh and cry in public. Jessica Anya Blau has written a soaring teenage lament, perfectly pitched, containing the single saddest and funniest line of seduction ever uttered.” — Larry Doyle, author of I Love You, Beth Cooper
“A book by Blau would be disappointing without pot smoking, hilarious and sometimes grungy sex, and bickering relatives.” — Boston Globe
“Jessica Anya Blau returns with all the comedic powers of a master trickster.” — Jessica Keener, author of the nationally-bestselling novel Night Swim
“Often hilarious and lewd, and also sincere and moving, like the naughty Southern Californian soul mate of Nick Hornby.” — Matthew Klam, author of Sam the Cat, and other stories
“Blau has crafted a totally uniqu coming of age story, wrapped in a road trip, with a drug caper center. It’s a wild, exuberant novel, full of humor, heart, and a solid dose of bad behavior. I loved it.” — Paula Bomer, author of 9 Months
“No one writes like Jessica Anya Blau. Funny, tender, and outrageous.” — Michael Downs, author of The Greatest Show
“Jessica Anya blau has the gift of creating people we feel and know as familiar, and then showing us how much we don’t know them at all.” — Leora Skolkin-Smith, author of Hystera
“This novel is addictive! I was hooked the moment straight-arrow Allie steals a bread bag full of blow...You won’t be able to look away.” — Mary Kay Zuravelff, author of Man Alive!
“Jessica Anya Blau’s The Wonder Bread Summer is a lightning strike of a novel, sexy and dangerous and aglow with adventure. Allie is a tenacious and deliciously complicated heroine, and it’s impossible to resist the ride she takes you on.” — Laura van den Berg, author of What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us
“This is as fast, fun, and outrageous a book as I’ve read in a long time. But beneath all the antics is a poignant story about racial identity, fathers and daughters, and coming of age in one totally messed-up decade.” — Matthew Norman, author of Domestic Violets
“In The Wonder Bread Summer, Jessica Anya Blau sends us tumblin down a rabbit hole of youthful mistakes and heartache, alongside the unsinkable Allie Dodgson. Coming of age has never been so wickedly thrilling.” — Tania James, author of Aerogrammes and Other Stories
“The Wonder Bread Summer is the best ever! It even made me a little jealous and that doesn’t happen often.” — Madison Smartt Bell
“Picaresque, properly funny, unpredictable and altogether irrepressible...[Blau] reminds me of [Charles] Portis in a lot of ways . . . [S]he has a steady nerve, as well as a wicked imagination, and she takes her craft seriously... Top-notch comic writing.” — Nick Hornby, The Believer
It’s hard to recall a debut as warm, charming and comically satisfying as The Summer of Naked Swim Parties . . . Blau conveys Jamie’s world with compelling insight and wit . . . [Blau’s] sharp observation and affectionate humor [give] surprising depth to this shimmering novel.
Jessica Anya Blau has taken the story of a young woman’s search for self and rendered it into a hilarious, cocaine-fueled thrill-ride. From its Tarantino-esque opening scene to its twisty final pages, THE WONDER BREAD SUMMER is an unrelenting delight.
Raunchy, poignant, and triumphant in turn—and sometimes manages to be all three at the same time.
A book by Blau would be disappointing without pot smoking, hilarious and sometimes grungy sex, and bickering relatives.
A fun read! Even before the buzzard hits the windshield, THE WONDER BREAD SUMMER will make you feel better about your worst summer vacation.
A rollicking, irreverent, sweep of a novel. Blau has written another shining, no-holds barred California heart breaker.
Often hilarious and lewd, and also sincere and moving, like the naughty Southern Californian soul mate of Nick Hornby.
This book will make you laugh and cry in public. Jessica Anya Blau has written a soaring teenage lament, perfectly pitched, containing the single saddest and funniest line of seduction ever uttered.
Jessica Anya Blau returns with all the comedic powers of a master trickster.
This is as fast, fun, and outrageous a book as I’ve read in a long time. But beneath all the antics is a poignant story about racial identity, fathers and daughters, and coming of age in one totally messed-up decade.
Blau has crafted a totally uniqu coming of age story, wrapped in a road trip, with a drug caper center. It’s a wild, exuberant novel, full of humor, heart, and a solid dose of bad behavior. I loved it.
This novel is addictive! I was hooked the moment straight-arrow Allie steals a bread bag full of blow...You won’t be able to look away.
Jessica Anya Blau’s The Wonder Bread Summer is a lightning strike of a novel, sexy and dangerous and aglow with adventure. Allie is a tenacious and deliciously complicated heroine, and it’s impossible to resist the ride she takes you on.
Jessica Anya blau has the gift of creating people we feel and know as familiar, and then showing us how much we don’t know them at all.
No one writes like Jessica Anya Blau. Funny, tender, and outrageous.
In The Wonder Bread Summer, Jessica Anya Blau sends us tumblin down a rabbit hole of youthful mistakes and heartache, alongside the unsinkable Allie Dodgson. Coming of age has never been so wickedly thrilling.
The Wonder Bread Summer is the best ever! It even made me a little jealous and that doesn’t happen often.
Picaresque, properly funny, unpredictable and altogether irrepressible...[Blau] reminds me of [Charles] Portis in a lot of ways . . . [S]he has a steady nerve, as well as a wicked imagination, and she takes her craft seriously... Top-notch comic writing.
Raunchy, poignant, and triumphant in turn—and sometimes manages to be all three at the same time.
It’s hard to recall a debut as warm, charming and comically satisfying as The Summer of Naked Swim Parties . . . Blau conveys Jamie’s world with compelling insight and wit . . . [Blau’s] sharp observation and affectionate humor [give] surprising depth to this shimmering novel.
1983 is like, a bummer, man, in this hazy quasi-comedy about sex, blow and what's next. No stranger to the unique strain of adolescent nostalgia for California after her similarly themed debut, The Summer of Naked Swim Parties, Blau (Drinking Closer to Home, 2011, etc.) goes over the top, sometimes very uncomfortably, with this druggie blast from the past. Set in the Los Angeles glory days of hair, metal and valley porn, the author designs quite the odd duck to center her gray comedy. When we open on shiftless Berkeley college student/remind-us-yet-one-more-time-she's-Jewish-biracial-Asian--wait, she has a name, it's Allie Dodgson. Anyway, the girl is not doing so hot. She loaned a bunch of money to her dreamy boyfriend, who promptly broke up with her. To make ends meet, Allie is working in a crappy dress shop in Oakland with her BFF Beth, snorting coke and trying to avoid the antagonistic penis of her masturbatory employer Jonas. Unfortunately for her, tuition and the rent are both due, and Jonas isn't giving up her paycheck without a fight. In a fit of pique, Allie swoops up a Wonder Bread bag full of high-octane cocaine, and she's off on her After Hours-esque misadventure. There are a lot of bad decisions, a lot of poorly made decisions and a lot of kooky characters to keep Allie rolling and tumbling. "I want to go back to school next summer," Allie says. "I want to stay in Berkeley and graduate with honors. I want to return this car to my friend Beth. I don't want to be a coke-snorting thief." There's a bit of lost-girl syndrome as Allie tries to reconnect with her rock-star mother and her absentee father. But tastes will vary--between the paraplegic porn producer and Allie shagging Billy Idol (seriously), most readers will have made up their minds one way or another. Meant to be Alice in Wonderland by way of Boogie Nights, the book comes off more like vintage Tarantino performed by HBO's Girls.
