We Are Meant to Be Robots

There's a super nice review of Us up at Insatiable Booksluts. It says, in part: "I really loved this book. It’s a very quick read – I finished it in one day. The last stretch was in the breakroom at work, and I was blinking away tears. We’re not to show emotion at work. WE ARE MEANT TO BE ROBOTS. So my coworkers were not overly impressed with the crying. I passed it off as allergies. Yay for reading this in springtime! Excellent little book. Kimball’s great with emotion and realism and pain and the truth behind a lifetime of love. Highly recommended."

"Since reading Us, I wish most books were Us instead."

The human kindness that is Joseph Riippi is interviewed at The L Magazine where he is asked: "What have you read/watched/listened to/looked at/ate recently that will permanently change our readers' lives for the better?" And where he answers: "Always and forever, Running in the Family by Michael Ondaatje is a book to love. And Michael Kimball’s Us makes me cry each time. I wish I had written Us. Since reading Us, I wish most books were Us instead. I love Us so much. You should love Us, too."

Literary Equations

There's a really thoughtful review of Us up at Literary Equations. The good Matt Rowan says, in part: "The novel is heartbreaking, crushing ... powerfully so. It's the good kind of crushing, too."

Us for City Paper's The Year In Books

I'm excited that City Paper named Us to its Top Ten list for The Year in Books, along with books by some of my favorite writers—Joan Didion, David Foster Wallace, Errol Morris, Lawrence Weschler, etc. City Paper says, in part: "We’re all familiar with the classic boy-meets-girl scenario, but what would happen if the tale kept going? Kimball takes the reader to the end of the love story—the real end—and shows just how crushing it can be. "

The Bomb Interview: My Mind Zooming In

My friend and genius Adam Robinson interviewed me about Us for Bomb. He asks me some impossible questions and I tell him what I'd be doing if I wasn't writing novels.

Us Named a Top Ten Indie by Book Page

Book Page has named its Top 10 Indie Picks for 2011 and Us tops the list, which also has great titles by Joshua Mohr, Alan Heathcock, Ryan Bradley, Steve Himmer, Adam Mansbach, Lavinia Ludlow, Vanessa Veselka, Franki Elliot, and Ben Tanzer. Many thanks for Lori Hettler.

Fall for the Book

I'm excited to be reading from Us tonight at George Mason University's Fall for the Book with the wonderful Amelia Gray and Matt Bell. It's 8pm tonight in the Student Union Building, Rooms 3, 4, & 5.

This Was Pretty Nice

Baltimore Magazine included me on their list of Top Five Writers -- along with John Waters, Laura Lippman, Madison Smartt Bell, and Stephen Dixon. Here's the blurb: "One of the funniest guys around wrote Us, one of the saddest and most poignant books that you'll ever read."

Me and Us on WYPR

I recorded this segment for WYPR's Maryland Morning with Sheilah Kast a couple of months ago and missed it when it aired, but the podcast is available now. Before me, there are segments about crime in Baltimore and a study about news sources, then I'm around the 24-minute mark. Tom Hall is an incredibly generous question-asker.

The Beautiful Sadness of Impermanence

There's a wonderful review of Us at Word Riot, which says, in part: "In his latest novel, Us, Michael Kimball delivers a gripping, forceful ode to that almost-forgotten lifelong theater of affection and agony between a man and a woman, an impeccably rendered meditation on what the Japanese call mono no ware, the beautiful sadness of impermanence. ... [Kimball] has taken contemporary fiction and turned on the light of a sparsely decorated dark and beautiful room to which it has perhaps never been." Many thanks to Chris Vola and to Jackie Corley.

Five Lit Things + The Paris Review

New York Magazine picked the Franklin Park reading I'm doing with Joshua Cohen, Kio Stark, Robert Tumas, and Amy Benfer as one of five literary events to check out next week.

Plus, Sadie Stein at The Paris Review wrote a nice tidbit that calls Us "heartbreakingly lovely" and the writing "a pleasure."

The Kindle Us

The Kindle version of Us is now available. Many thanks, as always, to the Tyrant and to Tyrant Books.

Welcome to the Golden Age

There's a wonderful group review -- books by Blake Butler, Scott McClanahan, Joshua Cohen, and me -- in the Charlotte Viewpoint. Jeff Jackson makes an interesting argument -- that "we’re living through a golden age for American literature" -- and then goes on to say nice things about each of our books. Of Us, he says, "this examination of love, grief and family makes these universal themes seem achingly fresh. ... Us delivers a powerful emotional experience."

Rain Taxi, Birdsong, Momentary Melodies

There's a really nice review of Us in Rain Taxi that says Us is "incredibly raw and unabashedly real ... Kimball wins us over by his impressive emotional authenticity. Us is so authentic that one might mistake it for an autobiography." You can only see it in the print version of Rain Taxi or at Powell's Review-a-Day.

Then there's this five-question, one-minute interview at Birdsong.

And I missed this a couple of weeks ago, but there's a really sweet and thoughtful video review of Us at Momentary Melodies. Thank you, Lauren.

Used Furniture

I'm interviewed at Used Furniture where we talk about Us, Dear Everybody, sadness and reckoning, euphoria and writing, and writing as something that is rendered.

Oprah Says Really Nice Things About Us

Oprah says some really nice things about Us: "The best little novel you haven't heard about, Us ... Kimball's clear-eyed prose unlocks the most vulnerable voice ... creating an emotional link that leaves no reader untouched."

The Playlist for Us at Largehearted Boy

I've always loved Largehearted Boy and I had a lot of fun listening to everything song on my iPod to make a playlist for Us. There's Beck, Wilderness, Neutral Milk Hotel, Mazzy Star, The Cure, Celebration, and a cover of a Blue Oyster Cult song.

Be Brave on the Page

The wonderful Caroline Leavitt asked me some smart questions about Us and I did my best to answer them. We talk about the origins for the book, the moment-to-moment structure, and making sentences do many things.

The Book Made It Happen

The wonderful Amber Sparks wrote a moving and personal review of Us for Big Other that says, in part: "I’ve read review after review of this amazing book that turns back on itself and becomes a sort of self-examination by the reviewer. I think that says more about the brilliance of Kimball’s novel than it does about us readers ... Michael Kimball’s wonderful book ... it fastened itself around my neck as I read, got in my eyes, swam in my bloodstream, infected my brain. The book made it happen. Us became a story about my grandfather, about my husband, about the people I love and the loss I fear."

A Personal Review (of sorts) of Us

The good Mel Bosworth wrote a thoughtful, personal review (of sorts) of Us for OWC that says, in part: "Michael Kimball is a rare, rare writer, a writer whose empathy knows no limits. He holds the note of loss and his voice never cracks."