Description

Shy and compassionate moneylender Harry Waltz is the richest man in Marathon, Michigan, and at sixty-one, has dedicated his life to bringing “honor and gentlemanliness” to loan-sharking. His wife died twenty years ago, he lost one son in Vietnam, helped put the other in prison, and his twin daughters have grown up and moved away. He lives alone in a large house surrounded by repossessed automobiles, and expects his life to continue at the quiet pace he is accustomed to.

But when he falls in love with forty-two-year-old lawyer Mary Hale, everything changes. She gets his son out of prison, and he moves back home, along with the twin daughters, one of whom is pregnant by her out-of work husband, and the other who is enamored with the same man. To complicate his life even further, his clients have stopped paying their debts, and now it seems that he is losing any sense of the stability he had come to rely on.

About the author(s)

With seven highly acclaimed books to his credit, Charles Dickinson takes American fiction back to the complexity of modern life and love with his characteristically incisive irony and humor. Critics have compared him to such masters as Margaret Atwood, Ann Tyler, Michael Crichton and Raymond Carver.

His stories have appeared in The New Yorker, Esquire and The Atlantic, among others, and two stories, "Risk" and "Child in the Leaves," were included in O. Henry collections. He has received generous praise for his novels, Waltz in Marathon, Crows, The Widows’ Adventures, Rumor Has It, A Shortcut in Time, and its sequel, A Family in Time, and his collection of stories, With or Without.

Born in Detroit, Dickinson lives near Chicago with his wife.

Reviews

“Outstanding. . . . One hopes that Dickinson has many more such compellingly natural characters in store for us.” - Library Journal

“Extraordinary in the extreme . . . rare and memorable . . . unique and funny.” - Des Moines Register

“Evocative . . . colorful . . . wonderfully offbeat . . . surprising, amusing and thoroughly entertaining.” - Publishers Weekly

“A startling first novel, mature and professional, abounding with good spirits.” - Christian Science Monitor

“Remarkable. . . . I can’t recall so sad and charming a hero as Harry Waltz . . . Charles Dickinson handles it all so beautifully, so effortlessly, that you are gathered up into the waltz-like movement of the story, loving every unexpected revelation of plot.” - Chicago Sun-Times

“An arresting novel. . . . The strength of this narrative lies in its authenticity. . . . A further distinction of Mr. Dickinson’s prose is its strongly pictorial quality, making one think sometimes of Edward Hopper and the best traditions of realist American art. . . . Rendered realistically and vividly with humor and surprise. Fascinating. . . . the very idea of his being a principled usurer is precisely what makes Harry Waltz so interesting. . . . A fine first novel.” - New York Times

“An arresting novel. . . . The strength of this narrative lies in its authenticity. . . . Rendered realistically and vividly with humor and surprise. Fascinating. . . . A fine first novel.” - New York Times

“An engaging, grown-up book about family relationships.” - Boston Globe

“Unique, genuinely uplifting. . . . A thoroughly absorbing story told with grace, wit and feeling. . . . Waltz in Marathon is a finely crafted novel that reveals a writer thoroughly in command of his art.” - Newsday

“Sure-footed and impressive. . . . This is uncommonly satisfying fiction.” - Kirkus Reviews

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