A bold ... beautifully insightful tale about a poet ... D'Stair's book allows readers to gain an intimate understanding of the hero's poetic gaze, which sees beyond the seemingly banal surface behavior of others ... this is a tale about a poet's inner life and, perhaps more accurately, her magpie mind constantly procuring imagery from the outside world to embellish her writing ... Lucy's endearing observations are marked by an almost childlike curiosity and sense of wonder and D'Stair's use of language is consistently striking, lyrical, and imbued with a similarly playful energy ... readers will feel as if they are inside Lucy's mind, listening to her dictate the narrative of her own life as it happens ... a clever take on the creative process and a poet's obsessive necessity to shape and reshape words to best capture a subject ... [Lucy Jinx is] a densely reflexive, intentionally staccato narrative ... best enjoyed in short sittings ... a cleverly conceived, smartly observant story that delves intriguingly into how a poet thinks. KIRKUS REVIEW

A novel of disruptions and disorientation ... In its descriptive precision, formal play, satiric sharpness, and tragicomic handling of social anxiety and creative processes LUCY JINX suggests the incisive pleasures of the heyday of Vintage Contemporaries ... the relentless succession of compact scenes offers a wealth of gems, powered by sparkling observational comedy and striking language. PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY/BOOKLIFE

PRAISE FOR THE WRITING OF PABLO D'STAIR

[D'Stair's work] is written by someone who cares about language - you'd be surprised at the number of novels written by people who don't ... D'Stair is committed ... you stop yourself from skimming because you start thinking you might be missing something - [his work] is too well written to skim ... Somehow again and again you're drawn in ... you get used to the rhythm and follow it because the work is obsessive. We find ourselves in a languid kind of suspense, bracing ourselves. BRET EASTON ELLIS (American Psycho)

I knew he could write, and I suspect he can do about eighty other things as well - if our minds are hamsters on wheels, then he has more hamsters than any of us ... D'Stair doesn't just write like a house afire, he writes like the whole city's burning, and these words he's putting on the page are the thing that can save us all. STEPHEN GRAHAM JONES (My Heart Is A Chainsaw)

The first thing that occurs to you when you pick up a volume of D'Stair is that it has no business being good. No credentials. None of the usual apparatus that tells you a book has appeared: publishers, agents, press releases. The industry didn't cough this one up. The second thing, once you start to turn the slippery pages, is: how the Hell can such good writing come from nowhere? Who the Hell is Pablo D'Stair, anyway? The final note, the one that makes D'Stair a little troubling, is that this writing is a voice inside your head. Nothing can prepare you for that ... Pablo D'Stair is defining the new writer. There is NO ONE else. As reckless as Kerouac's 120-foot trace paper, D'Stair's independence from all of us needs to be studied and celebrated. TONY BURGESS (Pontypool Changes Everything)

Over the years, I've stopped being astonished at the multifarious things that Pablo D'Stair can do well. Let's just say it: whatever he puts his hand to he accomplishes and with a style and panache that is his alone ... Original. Idiosyncratic. Off-kilter. Strange. The slap-back dialog, the scenes as accurate as if directed by Fritz Lang. This is D'Stair's world. Welcome to it. I envy you if this is your first time in. COREY MESLER (Memphis Movie)