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Title: One of America's best novelists
Review: Compared to the novels of its year, Damascus is one of the best. Poetic, entertaining, and profound, it is certainly a novel worth your time. It may not be as strong as his earlier work, but who else can write like him? As far as I'm concerned, the only writer who can beat Stone at his own game is Denis Johnson. (Stone is the better technician and has more consistency---but Johnson's flaws produce moments of genius that other writers lose through caution) Damascus is a beautiful shadow landscape that has more in common with desire and subconscious, than it does with the rational or mundane. The virtuosity with which it is told brings clarity and wonder to even the darkest corners of the earth.
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