Facade for a Penny Arcade

Hooray for Facade for a Penny Arcade! James Reiss’s big, audacious, buoyantly literate novel is an endless delight to read and ponder. Cheers all around.

—Adrienne Miller, author of The Coast of Akron

Arnie Gross is a real-life architect and dream-architect of a perfect edifice: his own story, the story of “A.R. Gross, war baby, man of his generation, designer of lofts and ladies’ rooms, husband of someone asleep in the middle of life. . .” Arnie’s story is both a blueprint and a finished work of anarchical mastery—wild and provocative—yet set down with authority on a solid foundation.

—Carol Muske-Dukes, author of Twin Cities

James Reiss, one of our finest and most fearless poets, weighs in with a glorious new novel, Facade for a Penny Arcade. Architect Arnie Gross is among the most vivid and memorable characters to grace a novel in years. “Onward Judeo-Christian soldiers!” Arnie shouts in one hilarious moment before sex. You’ll laugh your way through this book, it’s true, but more importantly, as in only the best fiction, you’ll feel as though you’ve a lived a life, a genuine life, warts and everything else. I for one am grateful for the window inside.

—Peter Orner, author of Am I Alone Here