Reviews of Record Palace

“Wheeler’s lyrical voice remains inescapable. We’re treated to an intriguing, jagged syntax that reads like a manual transmission sliding into gear.”—Boston Phoenix

“[A] skyrocket first fiction, a straight-ahead novel noir set in the music world of Jane byrne’s Chicago teetering into the 1980s.”—Antioch Review

“Wheeler’s feel for subtle variations in vernacular…shine in this knotty but mesmerizing little novel.”—Publishers Weekly

“Wheeler’s seductively atmospheric first novel traces a nervy young woman’s odyssey to selfhood, evokes acute loneliness, measures out noirish suspense, interjects sly humor, and pays unabashed tribute to Chicago circa 1980, out-there jazz, and the compelling music of language.”—Booklist

“ Wheeler is an award-winning poet…and it shows. The text is nuanced, with a syncopated, improvisational feel.”—Library Journal

“A jazzy, colloquial first novel full of the hustle of a downbeat Chicago record store…A lively intersection of art and music evokes a lost age of a great city.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Ten years ago I was stopped cold by Susan Wheeler’s poetry. She has done it again with her fiction—an exquisitely crafted recollection of music, at a pivotal time for both jazz and Chicago.” —STEVE MARTIN

“Record Palace is an astonishment. Susan Wheeler’s deft touch and flawless ear have produced an irresistible work, both fresh and sage.”—TONI MORRISON

“Dialogic, atmospheric, a situation plumbed rather than a plot unfolded—a Chicago noir this is and it casts its spell.”—E.L. DOCTOROW