In 1949, when I was sixteen, I stumbled on Thomas Wolfe, who died at thirty-eight in 1938, and who made numerous adolescents aside from me devotees of literature for life

He had that flair for the extravagant and fantastic which has been an American characteristic from Irving and Poe to Dashiell Hammett

Wolfe wrote as one inspired. No one in his generation had his command of language, his passion, his energy

The product of an immense exuberance, organic in its form, kinetic, and drenched with the love of life ... I rejoice over Mr. Wolfe

[An] intelligent, beautifully written tale of ordinary people in troubled times

Making Nice is a confident debut with a strong and youthful voice that refuses to accept life’s injustices

Violent, comic, and genuine, this book mixes truly relatable experience with the outlandish imaginings of a volatile character at odds with the rest of the world, and will make you cringe, hold your breath, and laugh. Put simply, Making Nice is a lovely book. You should read it

One of the funniest (and best) books of the year

Sumell’s shrapnel-sharp sense of humor is never more than a sentence away. By the time you’re finished, you’ll want more of Alby, which is good, because his creator’s just getting started

To say that Matt Sumell is an original voice is an immense understatement. Making Nice is ferocious and merciful, comic and heartbreaking. It will turn you inside out

Sumell nails something about his generation which is feat enough, but beneath the funniness and swagger and freshness and raw energy is a sincerity that is rare and true

Matt Sumell injects plenty of black humour, making for a bleakly enjoyable read

For fans of BJ Novak or Sam Lipsyte, Sumell’s self-destructive novel will appeal

Sumell manages to achieve a wondrous balance: pathos, humor, and serious angst rolled up in narration by a delightfully self-deprecating underdog... assured, inventive, and raucous storytelling

Indelible writing... Meet Alby, an Everybro for the millennial set

From the first page, Sumell’s exceptional novel in stories unleashes one of the most comically arresting voices this side of Sam Lipsyte’s Homeland... Sumell’s debut demonstrates an almost painful compassion for the sinner in most of us, making Making Nice even more fun than eavesdropping in a confession booth

Sumell’s compulsively readable novel in stories introduces a restless underachiever as irresistible as he is detestable, surely one of the most morally, violently, socially complex personalities in recent literature…. Sumell’s debut is humbly macho, provoking outrage, pity, and finally tenderness. Perhaps this is a book readers will hate to love, but only because it feels, like Alby, all too real

There's a special alchemy here that you are going to want to witness...offhand and funny, and then the tender heart emerges from the shadows, so tender, and comes at us with a knife. Every story here is two: one the fun, the other the blade

Focusing on the single reality that human beings die, Sumell wakes up, and boy oh boy is he ever pissed off... Sumell, on Alby's behalf, fights back, and he fights dirty. Using cunning, reckless rage, and bravura comic timing, he kicks death's ass... Bystanders get hurt, the reader got hurt, but at least I was reminded that I was part of this whole shitty deal. You'd like to believe that there are consolations, and there are. Being sentient, for example. Being able to read, for instance. Having read Making Nice

The self-destructive narrator lashes out with reckless intimacy, random violence, and an often hilarious misplaced rage that shoots to wound rather than kill. What saves its victims and the reader is a naked rendering of a heart sorting through its broken pieces to survive. The result is an eloquent empathy, an uplift of hope-filled grace

Making Nice will grab you by the throat, raise your blood pressure, and cause you to chortle in a crowd. It will also break your heart. When they're writing the history of the best characters of our time, Alby will be there, telling the others to get in line

Making Nice is a little bit special. A truly original portrayal of grief

Making Nice has an anarchic humour and a goofy, ingenuous humanity that makes every page feel new… Some jokes…aren’t just funny, they are insightful, unexpected and hilarious. In its rampage to nowhere, Making Nice achieves the remarkable feat of making it feel better to travel hopelessly than to arrive.