Reviews

Praise for A Game to Play on the Tracks
 
“Jackson's writing is quick and edgy, yet also dense and evocative. Her characters are peculiar and unforgettable, their stories disturbing, often heartbreaking... Jackson's writing is alive, and it moves fast.” Carol Matthews, Event
 
“Jackson knows that rich character is the most compelling element in the contemporary novel, and detail is the stuff from which complexity of character is woven.” Toronto Globe and Mail
 
“Jackson has a smart, taut style that never stops. Reading this book was like eating blue cheese: creamy and salty, veined with all the big blue themes of sex, death, memory. The result is worth savouring.” Annabel Lyon, Georgia Straight
 
“Vivid, pyrotechnic, Lorna Jackson's first novel is packed with voice and story, images that catch the skin... Her prose rolls and rollicks, smart and smart-alecky, often with a sting in its tail.” Maureen Garvie, Quill & Quire
 
“A Game to Play on the Tracks is a fusion of wild and unpredictable narratives, shifting points of view, crazed characters, and unstable meaning, as if Jackson's backup band consisted of John Zorn, Tom Waits, and P.J. Harvey. This isn't the usual Can Lit multi-generational saga of domestic affairs and quiet insights. A Game to Play on the Tracks is as brutally violent as it is introspective, as critical of the domestic life and its enforced passivity as it is of bar louts who want nothing more than endless reruns of AC/DC hits. Rather than writing the literary equivalent of a pop song with artificial and meaningless romances, Jackson has instead embraced the emotion of an improv jazz session, and crafted a tale of beautiful chaos.” Peter Darbyshire, amazon.ca
 
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