"It’s become cliché to say that a writer’s short stories have the weight of novels, but in Kirstin’s case it happens to be true. Her New Mexico is a crucible where individual desire is forged, lost, and reconstituted amid a backdrop of colliding histories and cultures. The result is as close to flesh and blood as black ink on white paper can come. She is a story writer of searing vision."
"Now that we’ve read [Quade’s] darkly funny investigations into relationships, we can agree: her talent is undeniable."
"Quade demonstrates her command of writing about complex issues of ethnicity and success head-on."
"Each of the ten stories offers a lyrical aria of its own, but together they create the music of generations, of families, and of a people."
"Her vision has thrived on…fierce, flesh-conscious desire for transcendence."
"[A] polished and potent collection…Rooted deeply in place and ringing with authentic voices, these gripping stories confront the hardest human questions of how to love, trust and forgive."
"[Lives] up to even the loftiest of expectations."
"A writer of extraordinary perception, a sharp-eyed truth-teller who renders her characters and the landscapes they inhabit with exquisite care. Each of these marvelous stories illuminates the messy, tender, unexplored borderland inside us all where our finest virtues bleed into our worst faults. A brilliant debut."
"Haunting and beautiful."
New York Times Book Review
"Kirstin Valdez Quade is a fantastic writer, both stylish and sagacious. The stories here are taut and tense, while at the same time morally complicated, which is to say, they cut sharp and they cut deep. Night at the Fiestas is a book of extraordinary virtuosity."
The collection reminds us, again and again, that each of us has only one life, and forces us to confront the biggest questions: Shouldn't that one life matter, shouldn't that life be worth remembering, shouldn't it be worth examining, contemplating, pursuing in understanding, even though all varieties of understanding are so difficult, so time-bound, so provisional? This is a variety of beauty too rare in contemporary literature, a synthesis of material and practice and time and courage and love that must have cost its writer dearly; it's not easy to be so vulnerable so consistently. Quade attempts, page by page, to give up carefully held secrets, to hold them up to the light so we can get at the truth beneath, the existential truth. Perhaps this is as close as we can get to what is sacred in an age in which so many have otherwise rejected the idea of the sacred.
The New York Times Book Review - Kyle Minor
Whether told from the perspective of adults or kids, Night at the Fiestas is most notable for conjuring the intensity and mythmaking of childhood and adolescence.
The New York Times - John Williams
01/05/2015
"[Lives] up to even the loftiest of expectations."
Bustle (Spring Break Recommended Read)
"A debut collection filled with stories that read like classics (reminiscent of the work of Alice Munro or Flannery O'Connor), by a young author who writes with the patient, implacable wisdom of time."
"Sparkling…features dreamers and schemers whose lives pulsate with wild hopes, hard luck, stunning secrets, and saving grace."
"A stunning debut. With unflinching honesty and relentless compassion, Kirstin Valdez Quade conjures characters that are uncannily alive. Vibrant, incisive, and wickedly funny, Night at the Fiestas announces the arrival of a fiercely original new voice."
"Fresh, funny…. A gifted storyteller with an eye for quirky, compelling detail…. A poised and polished debut."
Dallas Morning News - Jenny Shank
"Remarkable… In almost every story, Quade goes for vivid spectacle and theatrical plot twists… But Quade focuses just as intensely on the subtler customs, cruelties, kindnesses, and skewed alliances of precarious family life… If Quade ever yearned to escape her archaic Catholic heritage and redefine herself, let’s be glad she didn’t. Her vision has thrived on its fierce, flesh-conscious desire for transcendence."
The Atlantic - Ann Hulbert
★ 03/15/2015
02/01/2016
2015-01-22
