Marni Jackson has won numerous National Magazine Awards for her journalism, humor, and social commentary. Her non-fiction books have challenged popular thinking on subjects as diverse as the culture of motherhood and the treatment of pain. She has published in Rolling Stone, London Sunday Times, and every major Canadian magazine. Don't I Know You? is her first work of fiction.
"Delightfully strange...I think I'm concealed in it under a
sibylline pseudonym!"
--Margaret Atwood, on Twitter "Don't I Know You? reframes our
fascination with famous strangers, which can be as flippant as
paging through Us Weekly in the checkout line or as passionate as a
desperate teenage crush. In Jackson's hands, that fascination is a
kind of creativity--even a kind of art."
--Slate "Delightful and audacious...Exquisitely written...Poignant
and beautifully rendered."
--Judith Timson, The Toronto Star "Stopped me in my
tracks...Sensitively rendered stories that encompass one woman's
life...Jackson's writing is so smooth that it all feels real;
anything seems possible...The result is magic...This is the book
I'm recommending to anyone who asks, 'What should I read
next?'"
--The Globe and Mail (The 100 Best Books of 2016) Jackson's
characters, real and purely fictional, ring true.
--National Post "Nothing short of brilliant...[Jackson's] prose
here is beautiful: simple, streamlined, quietly honest. Funny in an
understated way."
--Tara Henley, The Toronto Star With its backdrop of cultural
touchstones that define the passing generations, this playful
journey will especially appeal to fiction lovers who are also pop
culture fans."
--Booklist "A writer's life is studded with celebrity appearances
in this whimsical collection of linked stories...Jackson, a
Canadian magazine journalist making her fiction debut, finds many
ingenious ways to play this game."
--Kirkus Reviews "Don't I Know You? is full of surprises in the
best possible way. A premise so unlikely you could never describe
it and writing so beautiful you could never believe it. Jackson's
prose is quicker than a mongoose, sharper than a scalpel--and full
of read-aloud sentences. She takes the familiar and makes it
fantastical and then makes it familiar again. It's an almost
impossible achievement, yet Jackson does it again and again,
and--best of all--you never see it coming."
--Katherine Heiny, author of Single, Carefree, Mellow "Where have
Marni Jackson's sassy and sublime stories been all my life? It's
safe to say that after reading Don't I Know You? I know Bill
Murray, Karl Ove Knausgaard, Leonard Cohen, Gwyneth Paltrow, and
co. so much better (at least the Bill, Karl, Leonard, and
Gloop-mistress of Jackson's febrile imagination). I also now know
the secret yearnings of my own small heart a little better,
too."
--Zsuzsi Gartner, author of the Giller-Prize shortlisted Better
Living through Plastic Explosives "I knew Marni Jackson first as a
gifted, intrepid journalist. Now I know her (suddenly and
obviously) as a radiant new voice in fiction. Don't I Know You? is
sexy and shrewd, a work of glaring imagination conjured with
journalistic observation and instinct."
--Terry McDonell, ASME Hall of Fame editor, author of The
Accidental Life "There is so much to praise in this brilliant
collection: Marni Jackson's daring and intelligence, her gentle
humor and unencumbered prose, her eye for the beautiful and hidden,
and, above all, her creation of a heroine as appealing and valiant
as any I've encountered in recent fiction."
--Barbara Gowdy, award-winning author of The White Bone and
Helpless "Alternately hilarious and heartbreaking, this whip-smart
debut imagines its heroine through a series of encounters with
celebrities, creating an intimate, indelible portrait of a woman's
extraordinary life."
--Semi Chellas, writer, co-executive producer, Mad Men
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