"It's a joy following [Gifford] along. an artful ride down a dangerous road." - Kirkus Reviews."Barry Gifford invented his own American vernacular --William Faulkner by way of B-movie film noir, porn paperbacks, and Sun Records rockabilly-- to forge the stealth-epic of Sailor & Lula. His accomplishment looks more and more like one of the permanent glories of recent storytelling, a set of crude masterpieces like Philip Guston's late paintings. The compression and verve on view on every page of this compendium is as irresistible and dizzying as a dish of brandy-filled chocolates forged in shapes of pistols, hangmen's ropes, convertible automobiles, and unclad, steamy bodies, daring you to keep gobbling them up."--Jonathan Lethem"The way Barry Gifford lets people talk articulates everything about their unfamiliar inner lives, and ours."--"Boston Globe".