Small Rain

Garth Greenwell is one of the best prose writers working today, and SMALL RAIN only further cements him as one of contemporary's greats. In his latest offering, we find our narrator living in Iowa, confined to an ER room during early-Covid. This is a departure from his previous two novels in many senses, our narrator is no longer abroad, and the casual sex of those two earlier books has been replaced by his first efforts into domesticity. Though Greenwell's prose style remains the same, and he can spend many pages circling the same subject/memory/etc. And it's exciting to see him work at this new juncture, and I look forward to seeing where he goes next.

Thanks to the publisher for the e-galley.

Like any good poet, Garth Greenwell has an instinct for an incisive title. In a way, no other could be more fitting for this novel than 'Small Rain': relatively slim in length (300 or so pages), with a condensed, compressed timespan and setting (a few weeks, spent in a handful of cramped hospital rooms), this is a "small" story - of one man, of an isolated, singular health crisis, of one moment in a (hopefully) long life. And yet, at the same time, to read it feels like being caught in a sudden shower: heavy and slippery and streaming, the kind of "rain" that makes you wonder if it will ever be possible to feel dry again.

Told in a relentless outpouring of lyrical, nimble sentences, Greenwell captures the sharp shock of a life-changing diagnosis (the unnamed narrator, finally admitting himself into the ER after five days of excruciating pain, is told his aorta has torn; statistically, he should be dead already), then explores its slower, crueller aftereffects: the prospect of a life of ill health, of perpetual pill-popping; the strain and stresses placed on partners and family members; the new sense of seeing and being in the world, one which seems so much less stable than before. Greenwell's prose is poetic perfection, his characterisation rich and true - foregrounded by the pandemic, it manages to articulate a collectively familiar period of time in a way which felt refreshing and original.

Thank you so much to Farrar, Straus and Giroux and NetGalley for this e-ARC!

This is my favorite work of Garth Greenwell's. I believe it to be most accessible, but also the most potentially triggering, with its talk of the pandemic and police brutality, events from our recent past that are ever present, no matter how often we talk about them in the past tense. In its way it's also a love letter to the doctors and nurses that put themselves in harm's way daily, going to work to save lives while endangering their own.

I lost myself in the passages where the unnamed narrator analyzes poetry from his hospital bed. I've never had the patience for it, but as a person who finds such beauty in language, I was spellbound.

Greenwell often writes in long paragraphs, with sentences that stretch on and on. If you're someone who luxuriates in frequent paragraph breaks and stopping points, Greenwell's style propels you on, forcing you to keep your eyes on your page and off your smartphones and computer screens. No, not much "happens" in this novel, but ideas can be illuminated in the absence of plot points. It's in the in-between, the ruminations on a life from the proximity to death, where beauty is found.

this was great! i really really liked the way greenwell tackles the often-frustrating relationship that we tend to have with our bodies, even more so when we become sick and the pain becomes chronic or complex. the main character reminded me of a gay william stoner (which is the highest compliment i can give him; ‘stoner’ has been my favourite novel for well over ten years now), and i really liked the way his relationship with his own body as well as other people was explored. overall, a fantastic read!

Compelling, urgent and necessary. 'Small Rain' is an audacious novel that takes us on the terrifying journey of a patient admitted to hospital, at the height of the pre-vaccine pandemic. On one level, it's an examination of the body and health care, the experience of the patient and the work of the professionals who labour tirelessly against the diseases and maladies that cause pain, suffering and death. Yet, on another level, it's a profoundly personal reflection, interrogating the life, and love and lust of a single character, and the passionate relationship he has with his partner. Finally, it's an examination of poetry, of literary creativity, the power of words on the page, and the challenge of teaching words which, to you are sublime, and yet to beyond the experience and thus comprehension of a high school literature student. It is, of course, all of these and more.

I read this novel in two sittings, but it could easily have been one. I underlined words, sentences and paragraphs. I've long admited Greenwall's work, his way with language, the art of his craft, and 'Small Rain' is a master class in the magic of the sentence.

I am waiting for general release so that I can purchase a copy and reread it with a pencil in my hand. Easily the best book I've read so far this year.

Gosh this was good. Immersive from the jump, really beautiful on a sentence level, and sensitive on a difficult topic.

Took the breath right out of me. Small Rain is somehow sprawling yet condensed, an operatic meditation on art and love, unlike anything I've read before.

• love love LOVE this book!!! wow!
• a queer poet reflects on his life when he is brought to the ICU with a mysterious illness
• a lot of ruminating on the american healthcare system with greenwell’s customary stunning prose
• a careful, beautiful look at humanity, art, love, a the ‘american dream’
• i honestly think i will read anything by this author, he can do no wrong