“As families go, this one is often mean, neglectful, clueless, drunk and scary – all of which makes for a hilarious story in the hands of first-time novelist Elizabeth Kelly. No, really, she’s that good. Most of the time, anyway. And when she lets the story lapse a time or two into pathos, she still outrights most other novelists crowding the bookshelf . . . Some will declare these characters too loopy and bizarre to be believable. At such moments, it will be prudent for the rest of us to muffle our giggles, lest we reveal too many family secrets. For every reader who finds the Flanagans dysfunctional freaks, a dozen or so others will feel right at home.”

—Cleveland Plain Dealer

“This book is something else. It really is. Wacky and smart and ambitious, "Apologize, Apologize!" marks Elizabeth Kelly as a formidable new storyteller on the North American scene, one to put on your Must-Read list straightaway . . . Because, really. Kelly, an Ontario native and mother of four who has worked as a magazine editor, does such outrageously odd and memorable things in this debut novel that she should be either committed or commended. We're going with the latter, in a photo finish. . . . (Think "A Separate Peace," or even "Prep.") . . . This novel takes risks, jumps off cliffs, throws caution to the wind and takes us in directions we don't expect. It makes us care about people we might not have dreamed we could connect with . . . Large, vital, funny, and crushingly sad, "Apologize, Apologize!" is one to savor in 2009.”

—Buffalo News

“Kelly takes a big gamble by letting most of her novel unwind through a male character. Most first novels carry a strong whiff of autobiography, of writing about what the author knows. Kelly can hardly know what it’s like to come of age as a male. Even so, her character Collie carries it off. Good for him. And good for Kelly.”

—St. Louis Post Dispatch

“To catch the spirit of Elizabeth Kelly's first novel, you've got to scream the title in hysterical fury: "Apologize, Apologize!" The subject of all that chiding is long-suffering Collie Flanagan, the only sane member of a wealthy family of alcoholics, Marxists, playboys, media barons and pigeon racers. As described in Kelly's deliciously witty prose, these are people you can't imagine living with, but can't resist reading about. The author is a Canadian journalist with an acute sense of absurdity and the arch style of a modern-day Kinsley Amis . . . Ploddingly normal and responsible, the teenaged Collie toils away like Marilyn Munster among creatures of monstrous self-absorption . . . The central joke of this section, which Kelly manages brilliantly, is that all the ne'er-do-wells in the family can agree on only one thing: Collie is a terrible disappointment . . . But halfway through "Apologize, Apologize!" the darker themes running beneath this comedy suddenly break through . . . Although the novel never entirely loses its comic tone, it becomes a far more contemplative, even plaintive, story of a young man struggling to redeem himself, to keep from being ‘some useless rich kid who everyone thinks is a coward’ . . . [APOLOGIZE, APOLOGIZE! is] good enough to overcome its flaws and witty enough to make us want more from Kelly.”

—Washington Post

“From Huck to Holden, from Babbitt to Rabbit, the great fictional seekers ask the big questions: What am I doing, where am I going and what does it all mean?. . .I love a good picaresque novel. Elizabeth Kelly’s début, Apologize, Apologize!, is jarringly lovable, alternately hilarious and heartbreaking, and, afterward, challenging to talk about: a perfect book club book. . . . Many bildungsromans feature an eccentric, "difficult" hero trying to navigate the calm waters of a "normal" family (or world). This novel turns that scenario upside down: "normal" Collie seeks a path to conventional success, all the while secretly wishing he had a little of the magic Bing possesses . . . Funny, sometimes shocking, this astonishingly readable and memorable first novel contains disasters great and small, poignant introspection, the antics of dogs and pigeons and the fierce and tender bonds of love. Elizabeth Kelly is an author to watch. And, once again, it’s a perfect book for a book club. May the fur fly!”

—Women on the Web, www.wowowow.com

“Dave Eggers fans should enjoy Canadian journalist Kelly’s rambunctious first novel about the guilt-ridden scion of a super-rich, eccentric Martha’s Vineyard family.”

—Kirkus Reviews

“Part Grey Gardens and part The Royal Tenenbaums  . . . beautifully written . . . Kelly is a gifted writer . . . Collie’s quest is worth reading for the elegant prose alone.”

—Publishers Weekly

“First time novelist Kelly displays an unrelenting quirkiness that begs comparison with Daniel Wallace and John Irving, both of whom have large contingents of rabid fans. Even the dogs and pigeons have personality to spare in this meandering story of the ‘fantastic Flanagans,’ a well-to-do family living on Martha’s Vineyard . . . Slightly surreal . . . Whimsical . . . will appeal to lovers of the offbeat.”

—Booklist

“Listen up, readers . . . Meet the Flanagans, a quasifunctional family that might give Jonathan Franzen pause . . . Kelly is a clever, witty wordsmith with a penchant for apt if over-the-top metaphors that are laugh-out-loud funny.”

—Library Journal

“When I read this novel, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry; so I did both—as the graced and disgraced life of Collie Flanagan came roaring at me, all mad comedy and pure grief with the brio of an Irish pub at closing time. And then I bowed my head, because this fine a story told this well doesn't happen every day or every decade. With the linguistic mastery of a Carol Shields or a Julia Glass, Elizabeth Kelly's debut novel comes down hard and strikes the bell.”

—Jacquelyn Mitchard, author of The Deep End of the Ocean

“In this unflinching and funny debut, Elizabeth Kelly deftly paints her tale in alternating shades of lush whimsy and hard-won ferocity.  APOLOGIZE, APOLOGIZE! reads as if Padgett Powell's Edisto had a first cousin from New England who was wealthier, more eccentric, more gothic and more drunk.”

—Mark Winegardner, author of Crooked River Burning and The Godfather Returns

“By the age of twenty, Collie Flanagan, the protagonist of Elizabeth Kelly’s splendid first novel, APOLOGIZE, APOLOGIZE!, has been tested by fate to the limit. The startling and painful wit of Collie’s voice makes Holden Caulfield sound like a kindergartner, and lays waste to the acres of banalities and clichés that usually accompany stories about redemption.  Rich with moral nuance and narrative surprise, this is a book as delightful as it is moving —in short, a magnificent debut. Ms. Kelly is a big talent and the book is deeply humane and subtle as well as wildly funny .”

—Elizabeth Frank, author of Cheat and Charmer

and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Louise Bogan: A Portrait.

“This novel starts with an enjoyable Celtic kitchen brawl of one-line put-downs in the heart of a family, and then moves its gears, through malice and disaster, to a quiet tone in which the protagonist finally learns to live with himself.  It's a tour de force of energy and spirit.”

—Peter Pouncey, author of Rules for Old Men Waiting

“The Flanagans are as outrageous as any you will ever find and the travails of Collie trying to negotiate the dual mine fields of life and his own family are the center of this brilliant debut novel. At times hilarious, tragic and poignant but always with a sharp edge, Elizabeth Kelly keeps the reader both mesmerized and laughing at a world both absurd and sad but always filled with the possibility of redemption. Think of a young John Barth and enjoy.”

—Bill Cusumano, Nicola's Books; Ann Arbor, MI

“An imaginative and energetic triumph. What you hear from the onset of APOLOGIZE, APOLOGIZE! is the delicious sound of a gifted novelist taking flight for the first time. Even sitting on a table with its covers closed, Elizabeth Kelly’s novel seems to buck and heave with its deliriously talkative and unforgivingly articulate characters. (Think of Dostoevsky on laughing gas.)”

—David Gilmour, author of The Film Club

“A warm and wonderful tale with smart, sassy, yet gentle sensitivity. Elizabeth Kelly writes with an original rhythmic style that ushers us in as we turn the first page of this magnificent story of family ties, devotion, understanding and acceptance. I loved this book!"

—Daryl Roth, producer of August: Osage County, Proof, and Three Tall Women