New York Times Editors' Choice selection
Intoxicating. -New York Magazine
Engrossing. . . . Tuten's prose is always vital, often dazzling. . . . The Bar at Twilight is neither normative nor predictable, and it bears the firm impress of the soul. -New York Times Book Review
The Bar at Twilight is [Tuten's] showcase, revisiting every strand of his bibliography with the benefit of hindsight and at the peak of his powers. . . . [It] is outgoing, lived-in, and gregarious. The word for this is generous. -Bookforum
Tuten's language is supple, elegant, and wonderfully descriptive. He is also very funny. -Los Angeles Review of Books
Tuten has managed to reinvent himself in one stylistically daring work after another. . . . The Bar at Twilight is a sumptuous compendium of fables, pastiches, and stories in late style, all of them trussed up in a distinctively earthy, image-obsessed prose. At once riotous and soulful, saturated by a gentle, well-traveled tristesse, the stories feel both strikingly familiar and markedly fresh. -Cleveland Review of Books
Subtly exultant. . . . The Bar at Twilight solidifies [Tuten's] reputation as a distinctive, if overlooked, practitioner of literary art. -East Hampton Star
Scintillating. . . . Tuten dazzles like the best of Jhumpa Lahiri, Alice Munro, and George Saunders. Here, with The Bar at Twilight, he is at the pinnacle of his craft. -On the Seawall
The subtlety of [Tuten's] storytelling is wonderful. -North of Oxford
Heady and elegant. . . . The work of a gifted, resourceful writer: an old master. -Kirkus Reviews
Heartfelt. . . . No matter whether Tuten is chronicling the creative or romantic lives of his characters, he renders their struggles with a sense of hope. -Publishers Weekly
The music of Tuten's prose speaks to my heart. His inimitable, imaginative, witty, romantic stories continue to haunt me. -David Gilbert, author of The Normals and & Sons
Tuten's stories are filled with art, dreams, yearning, and a past that he captures beautifully and deftly and then lets go. The Bar at Twilight is a wonderful, evocative collection. -Meg Wolitzer, author of The Interestings and The Female Persuasion
