The Lost Scrapbook - Reviews

"This first novel resembles the ambitious debuts of Joseph McElroy (A Smuggler's Bible) and Thomas Pynchon (V.), but author Evan Dara pushes the bar back upward toward the height of William Gaddis' The Recognitions…It takes some work to look back at The Lost Scrapbook and say, 'Aha, so that's how all those parts fit together,' and then 'Aaah,' which signifies satisfaction or, with a different spelling, awe."

- The Washington Post Book World

"Powerful…wonderfully entertaining… [The Lost Scrapbook] is that rarity among the first novels, a text that is both rich and accomplished, one where innovation, complexity, significant issues, and artistic control are all in abundant evidence."

-American Book Review

"Monumental, cunning, heartfelt and unforgiving… Dara shows how a novel can be experimental, yet moral, rule breaking but emotional, and post-humanist while remaining deeply human. A vast accomplishment."

- Richard Powers, author of The Gold Bug Variations and Galatea 2.2

"Evan Dara's magnificent novel… [is crafted] as if James Joyce had widened the narrative ear of Ulysses… If this really is Mr. Dara's first novel, he is either a young phenom or a well-practiced, reclusive treasure."

- Chelsea Review