Reviews
Review Excerpts
Country Roads Magazine – December 1, 2013
“Bishop is a born storyteller. So many moments in The Night of the Comet just feel so true and right that you find yourself whipping through it faster than you wanted to… I have two pieces of advice: read George Bishop’s The Night of the Comet, and take a little time on a dark, clear evening to look up at the stars… it’s the greatest show off Earth.”
New York Post “Required Reading” – August 18, 2013
“The comet in question is Kohoutek, which for people coming of age in the 1970s caused some hoopla. In Bishopʼs funny and endearing follow-up to his novel “Letter to My Daughter,” Alan Broussard Jr. gets a telescope for his 14th birthday from his amateur astronomer dad, a science teacher at the high school in their Louisiana bayou town. But Junior is less interested in Kohoutek than in lovely Gabriella Martello, whose family lives in a mansion within telescope view — with a lifestyle that catches the attention of Juniorʼs mom.”
Shelf Awareness – August 13, 2013
“Bishop’s stunningly crafted coming-of-age novel of yearning, devotion and choices will bring readers back to their own first love. The time period is captured brilliantly and the story is hauntingly realistic. As if the outstanding plot and lovingly developed characters weren’t enough, the book is interspersed with enough fascinating nuggets about astronomy and sky watching that it wouldn’t be surprising if it sparked a run on telescopes after its release.”
People – August 12, 2013
“It’s the summer of ’73, and the Kohoutek comet is hurtling toward Earth. The media hypes doomsday, while in a dull Louisiana backwater an obsessed science teacher becomes unraveled by his passion for the approaching mass of ice and gas. Told through the eyes of his 14-year-old son, himself tortured by passion for a new girl in town, this lyrical family saga twinkles with bittersweet humanity. As the comet becomes a laughingstock, Bishop (Letter to My Daughter) does a heavenly job telescoping the heady promise of youth tinged with the sorrow of lost dreams.”
–Joanna Powell, PEOPLE
The Cleveland Plain Dealer – August 4, 2013
In his new novel, “The Night of the Comet,” George Bishop builds a Bildungsroman upon the arrival of Kohoutek, using it as a metaphor for life’s expectations, mysteries, glories and disappointments . . . Alan is an appealing character who embodies the poignant hopes and fantasies and fears of a young man caught by love’s gravity.
Huntington News (WV) – July 30, 2013
“Comet” combines the best writing I’ve seen in a long time of coming of age, midlife crises and the ‘quiet’–or not so quiet–desperation that Thoreau wrote of. Bishop’s prose is good writing, serious but liberally seasoned with a sense of humor.
Kirkus Reviews – July 1, 2013
Filled with the kind of wistful longing that characterizes the coming-of-age novel, this latest from the talented Bishop brings stardust and domestic disillusionment to the bayous of Louisiana … Coming-of-age novels examine youthful revelations about the world—filled with cynicism and wonder and rearranged expectations—and the quality hinges on the honesty of the voice, the truth of the observations, the handling of innocence lost; Bishop succeeds on all these fronts.
A fine story of everyday sadness and otherworldly joys.
Publishers Weekly – June 24, 2013
Bishop’s resonant follow-up to his 2010 mother-daughter themed debut… …explores the complexities of a father-son relationship through science, astronomy, and the growing pains of adolescence.
Booklist – June, 2013
A quiet, occasionally bittersweet novel about the differences between desire and disappointment, expectation and reality.
