“The domestic relationships . . . are brilliantly rendered, a contemporary California version of Philip Roth.”---Austin Chronicle
“An entertaining romp through one family’s history.”---Boston Globe
“From painful humor to poignant scene-setting, [Blau] takes no prisoners in her candid look at an unconventional clan.”---Booklist
“Jessica Blau’s second novel is not only a wise and pitch-perfect depiction of family dynamics but also happens to be unrelentingly, side-splittingly funny. I dare you to forget this family.”---Irina Reyn, author of What Happened to Anna K.
“If you think you’ve read enough novels about mixed up families already, go ahead and read one more. Jessica Anya Blau’s DRINKING CLOSER TO HOME is a phantasmagoric, hilarious carnival ride.”---Madison Smartt Bell
“Jessica Blau’s DRINKING CLOSER TO HOME is heartfelt and hilarious as it explores every nook and cranny of this wonderful (and wild) family. If you want to know why we love our parents and siblings even as they drive us to drink and distraction, you must read this book.”---Ron Tanner, author of Kiss Me, Stranger
“The sharpness of Jessica Blau’s voice and wit never ceases to amaze me. From the first page this surprising novel takes a classic tale--adult children going home again--and turns it on its head. An absorbing, heart-wrenching read.”---Katie Crouch, author of Men and Dogs
“A very funny -- but also deeply humane -- novel . . . Parental love and booze and drugs and all the complications of becoming an adult: This is a smart book -- a book that makes you cringe and laugh out loud.”---Pauls Toutonghi, author of Red Weather
“If you took Jonathan Franzen, soaked him in Southern California culture, sprinkled him with biting insight and twisted humor, you would get a book that tasted something like DRINKING CLOSER TO HOME.”---Katie Arnoldi, author of Point Dume
“Jessica Anya Blau has created an unforgettably unique family . . . and done them a great service by placing them in a compelling story that is alternately funny and sad as hell. I don’t think I’d last twelve days in this family, but I could read about them forever.”---Kevin Wilson, author of Tunneling to the Center of the Earth
“DRINKING CLOSER TO HOME is as raw and heartbreaking as it is tender. Jessica Anya Blau has written an honest, haunting portrayal of a beguiling yet maddening family, who together come of age amidst the shifting morals of a country on the cusp of tremendous cultural change.”---Robin Antalek, author of The Summer We Fell Apart
“[A] tour de force of a second novel . . . deliciously funny, endearingly naughty, resolutely hopeful, and highly enjoyable. Blau is a masterful storyteller.”---Greg Olear, author of Totally Killer and the forthcoming Fathermucker
“[Blau has] lavished such attention on these people that I found it impossible not to care about them--and equally impossible to forget them.”---Steve Yarbrough, author of Safe from the Neighbors
“Hilariously irreverent . . . . This unconventional joy ride of a novel is also an unexpectedly powerful and multi-layered exploration of unbreakable family bonds.”---Gina Frangello, author of Slut Lullabies
“Jessica Anya Blau’s emotional turf is kinship, from its betrayals to its bonds—and in DRINKING CLOSER TO HOME she covers this territory with an honesty so raw and funny I wanted to read parts aloud to strangers.”---Dylan Landis, author of Normal People Don’t Live Like This
“Chekhov knew that laughter and tears are only a breath apart. So does Jessica Anya Blau. The family in her marvelous DRINKING CLOSER TO HOME . . . make[s] beautiful, hilarious music through time and all the spaces in the heart.”---James Magruder, author of Sugarless