“Mr. Silver's unusual perspective and wide range of material are enough to make this a memorably offbeat debut. So is the palpable struggle that he captures on the page. Far from being wispily nostalgic, ''Backward-Facing Man'' is still fighting to make sense of its characters' late-60's political conviction and wonder what became of it ... What is most interesting is Mr. Silver's unwillingness to resolve things neatly."

JANET MASLIN
New York Times (September 12, 2005)

"An epic, elegant debut."

BORDERS
Original Voices Selection, September 2005

"Don Silver's debut novel, "Backward-Facing Man," is a kaleidoscopic look at the 1960s counterculture through the lives of three refugees of the counterculture movement. The stories seem initially unconnected, however well written, a jigsaw puzzle of odd pieces. But Silver expertly brings together the disparate elements in an illuminating and entertaining book about the notion of idealism and how it's not a defeat to settle for less than a perfect world."

REGIS BEHE
Feature in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review

"Gritty and intense, BACKWARD FACING MAN has that caught-breath momentum that keeps the reader in for another page, another page, another page, right to the finish."

SVEN BIRKERTS

A dark elegy for '60s campus radicalism and its turn toward violence in the years that followed, Silver's debut novel is a complex, beautifully turned-out thriller. Set in 1999–2000 and told by trust-funded failed writer Winnie Prescott, the narrative (which includes a role for Winnie's childhood friend Patty Hearst) centers on Lorraine Nadia, who has recently died, and her legal secretary daughter, Stardust. Shortly after her mother's death, Stardust encounters a disheveled man on a Philadelphia commuter train who notes cryptically that "Your mother and I, we go way back." He turns out to be local factory owner Chuck Puckman, whose younger, more radical self was a lover of Lorraine's—as was Frederick Keane, the infamous Volcano Bomber, who remains in hiding. The novel shuttles back and forth between Chuck, Lorraine and Frederick's eventually diverging paths; Chuck's present struggles to save his manufacturing business after an environmental disaster; and Stardust's efforts to piece together the story and search for Frederick. Silver handles all of the elements cleanly, writing convincingly in the voice of Winnie, who has never been good at much of anything. The plot has real bite—no matter what one's political persuasion. (Sept. 1)

PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY
Copyright © Reed Business Information
a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

"Backward-Facing Man is a cautionary tale about the need to acknowledge and seek redemption for wrongful actions, because trying to ignore or forget them is self-destructive. Although this is Silver's first novel, he learned his lessons well."

Philadelphia Inquirer
November 17, 2005

10! - NBC Philadelphia Morning Show - 9/14/05

small 5 mb - large 11 mb