Man Talking: The Official Website of Mike Heppner
Author of the novels The Egg Code and Pike's Folly
Reply To: pike@mikeheppner.com
Praise for Mike Heppner . . .
"Heppner is a fearsome cultural critic disguised in a novelist's clothing."
- Entertainment Weekly
"[Heppner] is a young master of this old art, we should be happy to see him arrive so splendidly."
- The Washington Post
"Mike Heppner could well be the only novelist working in the postmodern style who consciously strives for accessibility and comparative ease of understanding."
- Peter Quinones, The Bohemian Aesthetic
"Mike Heppner [is] surely one of the most interesting young writers out there."
- Gary Fisketjon, interviewed in Slushpile
The Egg Code . . .
"A work of striking independence... Our pleasure in the novel comes from Heppner's astonishing formal inventiveness, his consistent metaphoric resourcefulness, his love of words and syntax, his superb ear for voice and dialogue, and his wonderful sense of humor. Heppner makes literary invention the real hero."
- Arizona Daily Star
"In this impressive debut novel, Heppner tackles his complex subject with a sure hand, creating a story that heartbreakingly displays the eternal frailties of human nature."
- BookPage
"A hugely rewarding barn burner for the Internet age."
- St. Louis Post-Dispatch
"This debut novel marries the threat of rogue technology with the notion of generational legacy."
- The New York Times Book Review
"The most impressive literary debut since Pynchon's V. Mike Heppner is an astonishing writer, and The Egg Code plants him in the middle of our town square, eyes blazing, hands in motion, brain spinning and his mouth going a mile a minute, delivering one brilliant home truth after another."
- Peter Straub, author of Ghost Story and
Koko
"The best book of the year... Heppner is a bold, uncompromising author capable of negotiating the literary chasm between technological mumbo-jumbo and real emotional depth."
- Philadelphia City Paper
"An undeniably entertaining read."
- Madison Capital Times
"The Internet, blind faith in the Web, and a good-sized chunk of American culture take a hammering in this ambitious debut. Heppner has bitten off more than he can chew, but so did Dickens and Balzac, so a little patience is in order. [The] true gravity comes from the author's old-fashioned grasp of his characters. A wild ride... too much fun."
- Kirkus Reviews
"Part conspiracy opus, part bleakly absurdist humor, this novel is an acute diagnosis of our age."
- Booklist
"[A] bumptiously clever debut. Heppner resembles the movie director Paul Thomas Anderson more than he resembles any fellow writer--like Anderson's Magnolia, this novel operates on multiple levels, alternating among an evidently empathetic intelligence, an uncommon comic brio and outrageously sophomoric symbolism."
- Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
Pike's Folly ...
"Brims with fun... The kind of Waugh-like breezy black humor that cloaks a biting satire."
- Esquire
"Heppner's prose is ax sharp, and he fells a great many American demons in putting forth his haunting and redemptive vision of New England's past and present."
- Publishers Weekly
"Pike's Folly is all about subtlety, both in what the story explores and in how Heppner lampoons that... Subtle, humane--and therefore true."
- Detroit Free Press
"Sparkles with wit, poignancy and humor."
- The Temple News
"An endearing look at life fully (or in this case overly) examined... In Pike's Folly, [Heppner] takes a ruthless but humorous look at the demoralization of an already imperfect world."
- Pages
"Pike's Folly is clever, funny, endearing and well written... A Faulknerian tour de force."
- Neil Peart, author of Road Show and drummer of
Rush
"Heppner tells the hilarious and provocative story of how wealth, greed, passion, and oddball behavior bring happiness to folks who may or may not deserve it. At times this is a scathing indictment of the rich and infamous, with Heppner skewering age-spotted, phony philanthropists and their spoiled and useless offspring, as well as the frothing protesters and nervous activists who insist they know what is best for everyone else. Mostly, however, this is just plain funny and irreverent."
- The Times Record
"Funny, forgiving, savage, kind and merciless, Heppner's view encompasses the idea that we can escape more of our past than we deserve, given enough time. A talented writer with a clear sense of the ridiculous and how seriously we take ourselves, Heppner is a writer who grows with each book."
- The Portsmouth Herald
