"I thought of Flannery O'Conner as I read this remarkable novel, which is sometimes horribly funny and sometimes heartbreaking, always gripping and populated by unforgettable characters. I thought of Christina Stead as well--but mostly I thought: I have never read anything quite like this, nor has anyone else. The voice is acid, funny, at first commonsensical and un-self-pitying, later lyrical, later madly deluded; the voice is gorgeous, it is brilliant. How Goldie Goldbloom makes us feel the absolute reality of another human soul while simultaneously making us shriek with laughter is beyond me. But this is exactly what she does, and the result is dazzling." "The Paperbark Shoe is a strange, mesmerizing tale about characters uncomfortably defined by superficial eccentricities. It is also a wrenching love story."
What an astonishing book this is! It's hard to believe "The Paperbark Shoe" is Goldie Goldbloom's first novel because she has the audaciousness, the wildly inventive language, and the historical mastery of – well, it would be hard to think of any one writer she resembles. Her book runs like a live current between poles of emotion, searing a path between delight and pain, the local and the universal, and finally between love and loss. I can't remember when I last heard a new voice as exhilarating as this.