Reviews of The Water Cure

“A psychologically harrowing and literarily provocative portrait of a mind unraveling from tragedy.” —Kirkus (starred review)

“While The Water Cure is most decidedly a novel, it is also a meditation on what it means to be a victim and a torturer at the same time. [Everett’s] finest book to date.” —The Washington Post

“Ishmael’s ponderous rant covers everything from semiotics and Greek philosophy to deception and the Iraq War…wry but beautiful moments of civic and domestic tenderness in language that is musical and sure.” —Publishers Weekly

“Everett bends language like Superman bends steel. . . [He] swoops, swerves, zigs and zags. For [readers] who don’t mind leaving the tidy structure of mainstream fiction, The Water Cure can be a bold adventure.” —San Francisco Gate

“Everett is a fearlessly experimental author, and here he gives us a confession —in textual and visual fragments—born out of an unreliable narrator. . . At times, the content is so disturbing I could almost feel the sharp-taloned progress of the text clawing across my eyes. . . In the end, you will be rewarded.” —Esquire

“Percival Everett has made a career out of flouting expectations … [forging] a nervy, caustic body of work that defies easy categorization … [The Water Cure] is one of the most elliptical, eccentric protest novels you’re ever likely to read.”
—Los Angeles Times

“Whether read as a thriller or allegory, Ishmael’s fall from grace has a lacerating power.” —Kirkus

“Consider yourself warned: The Water Cure will keep you awake at night for however long it takes you to read it and likely for a significant amount of time afterward.” —Andrew Ervin, The Philadelphia Inquirer