Blood Test - (Vintage Contemporaries) by Charles Baxter (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

From the winner of the PEN/Malamud Award and "one of our most gifted writers"(Chicago Tribune) comes a comic novel about a divorced Midwestern dad who takes a cutting-edge medical test and learns that he has a predisposition to murder.

In this fresh take on love and trouble in America, Brock Hobson, an insurance salesman and Sunday-school teacher, finds his equilibrium disturbed by the results of a predictive blood test. Baxter, a master storyteller, brings us a gradually building rollercoaster narrative, and a protagonist who is impertinent, searching, and hilariously relatable. From his good-as-gold, gentle girlfriend to the macho subcontractor guy his ex-wife left him for, not to mention his well-raised teenage kids, now exploring sex and sexuality, the secondary characters in Brock's life all contribute meaningfully to the drama, as increasing challenges to his sense of self and purpose crash over him. The final battle--no spoilers, but there is one--couldn't be more delightful, as this quick and bracing novel reminds us to choose the best people to love, accept the ones we love even if we didn't choose them, and love the mall well.

Review Quotes

"[A] quiet masterpiece. . . . The genius of Blood Test is how adroitly Baxter takes the measure of our moment, in all its insanity and perplexing depravity. It is a profound and unsettling--and, yes, frequently funny--snapshot of our current tribulations, cast in relief against the stubborn peculiarities of the American character. Humor is famously subjective but it's safe to say that, from the start, we're in practiced and confident hands here." --The New York Times

"Delightful. . . . A comic parable about the possibilities, and the perils, of self-transformation." --The New Yorker

"Once you fall under the charm of Brock's breezy patter, you're in. . . . the story charges along so boisterously that it's easy to forget Baxter is batting around some of the weightiest concerns of human experience, from the nature of fate and the boundaries of free will to the power of unconditional love. Fortunately, he remembers the first rule of comic novels: Keep it short. . . . At 77, Baxter is still fearlessly embracing his own zaniness. The narrative voice he creates for Blood Test sounds like an old friend simultaneously touching your heart and pulling your leg." --The Washington Post

"In Blood Test, Baxter invites us to laugh at this all-American zaniness and to acknowledge some of the pain that fuels it." --NPR's Fresh Air

"He's written something closer to a farce -- a story in which every predicament is intentionally absurd [...] After Baxter has laid out the parade of selfish, money-hungry, blindly tech-admiring elements of contemporary life, the black comedy of the words shines through." --Los Angeles Times

"[Blood Test's] humor, which is delightful, is wrapped around truths and drama and so, while we laugh, we also feel a shot of anxiety. It is a wonderfully crafted book, more complicated than it first might seem." --Minnesota Star Tribune

"Blood Test is wonderfully wacky, a hyperbolic yet heartfelt book about modern life in all its absurdity, featuring medical bills, target practice, a pet rat, meatloaf, college applications, walks in the county park, and love of all kinds." --Houston Chronicle

"Riotously funny. . . . At its core, this is a disarmingly sweet novel about family, an entertainment with just the right amount of Midwestern menace." --Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Blood Test may offer a dark view of aspects of middle America, but it is consistently amusing and is an expression of its author's deep fascination with and love of flawed, eccentric Americans as well as a celebration of old-fashioned values. . . . Blood Test demonstrates that laughter is still the best medicine." --New York Journal of Books

"Baxter's sharp observations and ear for dialogue are on full display." --Publishers Weekly

"Immensely enjoyable. . . . A deeply funny, profound, and timely comedy about the contemporary overreliance on data to predict everything and anything, Baxter's latest is another excellent tale to add to his much admired and enjoyed body of work." --Booklist

"Sandwiched between hilarious scenes is Brock's love for his family and his display of sympathy for his ex-wife and her ne'er-do-well boyfriend. The coda is inventive just like the countless laugh-out-loud moments in this imaginative book." --Minnesota Monthly

"[A] disarming tale of love, family, and the things that give our lives meaning." --Shelf Awareness

"Baxter's novel has a science fiction flare and a fascinating premise." --Library Journal

"In Blood Test Baxter has crafted a testament to his enduring literary talent as well as a remarkably relevant work that speaks to the lives led by normal people these days, a book that blends humor with profound social commentary, offering a severe yet thoroughly entertaining exploration of contemporary American life. It is a necessary novel for right now." --The Spectator

"Blood Test is a funny, morally luminous, altogether irresistible caper that somehow, wonderfully, calls to mind both Nietzsche and Charles Portis. What a maestro Charles Baxter is." --Joseph O'Neill, author of Godwin

About the Author

CHARLES BAXTER is the author of the novels The Feast of Love (nominated for the National Book Award), First Light, Saul and Patsy, Shadow Play, The Soul Thief, and The Sun Collective and the story collections Believers, Gryphon, Harmony of the World, A Relative Stranger, There's Something I Want You to Do, and Through the Safety Net. His stories have been included several times in The Best American Short Stories. Baxter lives in Minneapolis.