Really, the reviews were almost uniformly good  The book was a PEN/Faulkner finalist, after all, and was shortlisted for the LA Times Seidenbaum first-novel prize. But you can read an excerpt and judge for yourself.

USA Today, for instance, calls it a "wonderful novel," while the Chicago Sun-Times praises the "remarkable timing" of this "very funny book." "An outrageous, superb novel," says the Philadelphia Inquirer. "With its delicately handled echoes of Dante, and its unblinking look at contemporary America, St. Burl's Obituary is ingenious and thought-provoking," says the Washington Post, adding: "It goes down as easily as cotton candy, one of the few foods that Burl Bennett does not down in this epic of consumption."

Publishers Weekly, in a starred review, says the "delightful protagonist" will "invite comparisons to John Kennedy Toole's Ignatius Reilly," and praises the style as simultaneously "literate and funny." Buzz Magazine pronounced it "a delightful black comedy," and the Los Angeles Reader called it "complex and rewarding. . . a literary feast." "Deadpan hilarity," says The Denver Post. "Akst is as insidious as trying to eat one potato chip."

KUVO-FM, the jazz station in Denver, says, "Akst is a geniuine storyteller who is able to entwine all the aspects of a thriller, a love story, a comedy, and an allegory into one brilliant first novel. St. Burl's Obituary is a rollicking, deftly orchestrated success." Newsday, the big Long Island daily, says, "Akst's prose keeps its savor to the very end. It's witty, exact and lyrical stuff."

"Daniel Akst has crafted a remarkable novel," says the Los Angeles Times, calling it "a stunning allegory of self-transformation." The City Paper of Baltimore says, "This sprawling, good-natured epic charts America's unhealthy obsessions with death, salvation and food," adding that overall, it's a work of "sustained and considerable delight". The book also got excellent notices in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Missouri Review and The Bloomsbury Review.

There are lots of good reviews in German, too, although I don't have them electronically and don't speak the language anyway.

St. Burl's Obituary was chosen for the "Discovering New Writers" promotion at Barnes & Noble, where it was prominently displayed and remains available online. You can also order St. Burl's Obituary from Amazon.com.