The latest updates.
Read the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Review here.
“In the very best of fiction, an intimate, spiritual communion momentarily transpires between reader and author. In the case of Bender’s novel, these moments occur during these flawless passages of authentic longing and isolation. Like some of today’s best contemporary realistic authors, Bender skillfully excavates and animates the human fragilities and missteps of life…” Read the rest of this great review here.
“This book would be a great discussion piece on the interplay between religion and society as we navigate the personal and the public and the place of religious life in our culture at large.”
Read the rest of his terrific review here.
Ben Steelman interviews me for the Star-News. Read the interview here.
Read an excerpt of my novel here.
http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/
Erika Dreifus generously reviews my novel on her blog. Read it here.
http://blogs.forward.com/the-arty-semite/167489/women-helped-jewish-lit-evolve-in-/
Booklist says, “Bender has created complex characters in a novel that provocatively considers our basic need to connect with other people, and how very fragile those connections can be.”
Publisher’s Weekly says: “Bender’s a keen observer of marriage and the psychological bonds that tie mothers, daughters, fathers, and sons. The novel excels in stirring the reader’s sympathy and outrage…Bender offers an absorbing and often touching look at the struggles of an urban middle-class family to adjust to an unfamiliar America—rural, provincial and homogeneous.”
And Kirkus Reviews says: Is it possible to know another person, even one you love, is the question posed in this novel…..Bender portrays a marriage in crisis with heartbreaking accuracy.
Author John Jeremiah Sullivan, author of Pulphead, says, “Quiet power is something we have too little of in our fiction these days, so I cherished it all the more in Karen Bender’s Town of Empty Rooms. She observes her characters from what you might call a respectful distance, but in a way that penetrates to the psychic muck. She knows that gossip is one of the ways we reveal ourselves. This doesn’t sound like any other book about a Southern small town.”
Craig Nova, author, most recently, of The Constant Heart, says, “A Town of Empty Rooms is a gift to anyone who loves real books about real people. It is profound, moving, and so beautifully written as to break your heart. It’s as though Karen Bender is channeling Willa Cather, with a bit of George Orwell. Charming, real, and absolutely necessary.”
Edith Pearlman, author of Binocular Vision, says, “I read this absorbing book in one sitting. It has everything to make you go on reading – conflict, hope, disappointment; displays of confusion, displays of ignorance, displays of foolishness; —and, at bottom, an affecting depiction of human isolation.”