Published as that world struggles with issues of justice, vengeance, proportionality, Senseless combines the taut plotline of a made-for-TV thriller with the ruminations of a sophisticated literary novella. . . Fitch draws us into the forbidding truth that we're now stuck among amoralists capable of anything. As much as any novel can, this disturbing one forces us to face what we're capable of - what we should be capable of - in such a predicament." - Carlin Romano, Philadelphia Inquirer
Small like a stick of dynamite, Fitch's second novel delves into the horrific experience of a hostage forced to endure torture that ultimately deprives him of his five senses. Fitch's otherwise grim, one-sitting novel, his first in nine years (after Strategies for Success), has many moments of poignant reflection as Eliott Gast ponders his past and future. He also wonders about the gruesome use the Internet is being put to - an issue that Fitch resolves with brevity and ingenuity. - Publisher's Weekly
Stona Fitch's Senseless is about cruelty, and it is this topic - both terrifying and infinitely alluring - that makes it one of the most gripping books of recent years. Given the events of fall, 2001, Senseless resonates in an especially disquieting fashion. It is not just that it draws attention to the widespread anger at American policy, it also calls forth the emotions that fuel terrorism, torture, and war - emotions that are human rather than national or political. Stona Fitch is merciless in cutting to the bone of these issues. His book is a small masterpiece that should stay in the mind long after the last page is read. - Bolton Common
"Kafka in overdrive." - Cincinnati Enquirer
Fitch skillfully builds suspense in this story, which is short enough and compelling enough to finish in one sitting. In fact, the entire novel serves as a sort of extended life-flashing-before-one's-eyes experience. A harrowing thriller that is also an absorbing and thought-provoking character study. - Booklist
It took nearly 10 years for Stona Fitch to produce a follow-up to his boffo post-Yuppie angst novel Strategies for Success and it was worth the wait. Sense and timely, this is a novel that captures both the age of the Internet and our new culture of fear." - Las Vegas Mercury
The book...has us writhing, but that it its genius...We are left with a riveting and exhausting novel, one that hits a number of extremes - delights full of horror, with numerous civilized touches to assuage the wounds they make. - The Bloomsbury Review
Senseless is a grimly elegant novel with a studiously ambiguous take on both its protagonist and its subject: the moral responsibilities of global powers to those less fortunate. - Houston Chronicle
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