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"Unloading Norbert" Placed in the top 100 of 5000 entries 'Amazon's Breakthrough Novel Award'
Unloading Norbert, an Amazon Short
Manuscript Review of Unloading Norbert by Publishers
Weekly, an
independent organization:
"Starting with
its title page, this quirky novel, written in the
unadorned style of Anne Tyler, grabs and holds the reader's interest.
Norbert is a mad
but brilliant research scientist, an agoraphobic, the kind of guy who fears leaving his house and who prefers going to the
lab in the middle of the night, when no one else will be there, so he doesn't have to deal with people. "Norbert had no idea
how to be a friend," and friendliness of any sort makes him uncomfortable. But at the novel's opening, Norbert's already being
forced to rethink his behavoir. Because of his drug problem (his main recreation is smoking pot), Norbert's job has decreed
that he must see a psychiatrist. Thus begins an account of how Norbert reluctantly learns to leave his shell, discovers
the power of journal writing and, perhaps, even makes a friend. The power of this slim manuscript comes from the author's skillful
ability to be tender, yet unsentimental, a high wire act that dazzles on every page. "
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