An NPR Favorite Book of 2020
A Booklist Best New Book of 2020
An Esquire Best Summer Book of 2020
A Town & Country Best Summer Book of 2020
An Electric Literature Best Nonfiction of 2020
A Literary Hub Best New Book to Read This Summer
A Planetizen Top Urban Planning Book of 2020
A Refinery 29 Best Summer Book of 2020
“A humble and curious must-read.”
—Booklist, starred review
“A warm, engaging reminder that places quickly written off can be the birthplace of the next big thing.”
—Adrienne Westenfeld, Esquire
“[Diamond's] cultural criticism is consistently astute.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Using personal experience, history, and cultural reportage, Diamond finds these tidy, bland environs have produced or inspired some of the country’s finest artists.”
—Amy Sutherland, Boston Globe
“A literate meditation on clipped-lawn places easily taken for granted but that well deserve such reflection.”
—Kirkus
“[E]xcellent. . . . Diamond’s omnivorous and expansive sense allows him to weave history, popular culture, literature, film, and his own experiences into a revelatory take on suburban life.”
—Nick Ripatrazone, The Millions
“It’s the rare work of cultural criticism with a purview that encompasses William Gibson, Celeste Ng, and Anthony Bourdain—and it’s all the stronger for it.”
—Tobias Carroll, Literary Hub
“Diamond is a keen cultural critic leveraging a deep reservoir of knowledge. The Sprawl leads us on a journey through the promise of suburbia while expertly peeling back the curtain.”
—Ian MacAllen, Chicago Review of Books
“Exceptionally smart and wildly fun at the same time.”
—Hilary Kelly, Vulture
“Funny, smart, and heavy on pop culture allusions. . . . Where this book really excels is in identifying certain moods that relate to suburban America.”
—Joseph Houlihan, Rain Taxi Review
“A supremely researched taxonomy of the American suburb.”
—Jason Katz, Ploughshares
“[A] smart, funny, probing look into a world of freshly mowed lawns, multi-car garages, and, yes, white picket fences.”
—Kristin Iversen, Refinery 29
“This is a warm and thoughtful book that doesn’t just coast on beauty and nostalgia without challenging both.”
—Hanif Abdurraqib
“Generous and unsparing, funny and deeply thorough.”
—Lyz Lenz
“A child of the suburbs myself, I devoured this smart, probing, and deeply human meditation on what it means to be promised comfort, and what it feels like to tear yourself apart trying to escape it.”
—Amanda Petrusich
