From Publishers Weekly

Much like its unnamed narrator, Pernice's first novel ambles in no discernable direction, nudging up against tantalizing stories but never quite connecting. In it, the narrator retreats to a Cape Cod cabin, owned by his sister's ex-husband, after fleeing a days-old marriage. He then spends his time interacting with townsfolk; reminiscing about Jocelyn, his abandoned bride; babysitting his infant nephew; and assisting an alluring neighbor in coming to terms with her tragic past. The author, a noted musician, seeks to emphasize the ordinariness of his main character by leaving him anonymous, but the man is not ordinary at all—he is, in fact, pathologically aimless. He can never quite say why he left Jocelyn and has no idea what he hopes to accomplish in his exile; worse, there is no sense that he has any desire to find out. The main supporting characters, ex-brother-in-law James and neighbor Marie, are more compelling than the narrator, but of course their scenes are marred by the narrator's necessary presence. Pernice's easygoing prose is attractive, but the fetishizing of slackerdom is a make-or-break proposition. (Aug.)

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Review

"One can accept, reluctantly, Pernice's apparently inexhaustible ability to knock out brilliant three-minute pop songs-Just about any Pernice Brothers record contains half a dozen tunes comparable to Elvis Costello's best work. But now it turns out he can write fiction too, and so envy and bitterness become unavoidable."

-Nick Hornby, The Believer

"Observed with impeccable clarity, It Feels So Good When I Stop is a very funny, profoundly human novel, perfectly attuned to the quotidian grotesque of 21st-century America."

-William Gibson, author of Spook Country

"If Charles Bukowski had grown up in the eighties and listened to a lot of indie rock, he might have sounded a lot like Joe Pernice. It Feels So Good When I Stop is a hard-boiled slacker chronicle of heartbreak and self-renewal, as smart as it is funny, written in one of the most arresting voices I've come across in a long time."

-Tom Perrotta, author of Little Children and The Abstinence Teacher

"A hilarious, moving and deep novel...Joe Pernice tells it true." -George Pelecanos, author of Drama City and The Night Gardener

"Quite a remarkable piece of writing. Acidic, profane and easily one of the most lethal and unrelentingly hilarious books that I have ever read."

-Jonathan Poneman, President of Sub Pop Records

"The best messed up love song you'll ever read."

-Dan Palladino and Amy Sherman-Palladino, creators of The Gilmore Girls