Praise for How to Fall Out of Love Madly
“In an even-more-impressive continuation of the work she began with her debut, The Girl Who Never Read Noam Chomsky (2018), Casale has again taken the detritus of women’s inner lives—the things we wished had never happened, the thoughts we wished we’d never had, the endless self-flagellation about our bodies—and made something funny, warm, and compelling; something sisterly in the finest sense of the word. . . . Casale’s narrative voice is deadpan, funny, and clean without being faux flat or pretentious. Casale is an American Sally Rooney, so smart about friendship and love.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“With wit, brains, and empathy, Jana Casale throws open the curtain on the inner lives of three young women and illuminates their pain and beauty. Casale captures a very particular moment, one that’s so raw and intimate, it’s often just easier to ignore. How to Fall Out of Love Madly insists that we pay attention. The book is a literary triumph, and it’s also an absolute delight.”
—Lauren Fox, New York Times bestselling author of Send for Me
“Achingly funny, startlingly intimate, viciously familiar, How to Fall Out of Love Madly says every quiet part of being a woman out loud. Jana Casale isn’t just inside my head—she’s inside its back of the closet, where I keep things I know about being a woman but don’t like always to look at. This story throws on a light, showing us what to own and what to let go of.”
—Megan Angelo, author of Followers
“Can a book resonate too much? Potent and poignant, How to Fall Out of Love Madly offers characters so lovable, and social commentary so sharp, that I have paper cuts from turning the pages and a special place in my heart for Casale’s unapologetic storytelling.”
—Beck Dorey-Stein, New York Times bestselling author of From the Corner of the Oval and Rock the Boat
“I love this book with all my heart! Jana Casale is a master storyteller—observant, witty, sharp, and funny. How to Fall Out of Love Madly is an intimate look at three women and the way they move through the world, shapeshifting around men, other women, even themselves in their quest to find love and happiness. This book is an honest and compelling look at female friendship, romantic relationships, and infatuation, and I couldn’t put it down.”
—Jennifer Close, New York Times bestselling author of Girls in White Dresses and Marrying the Ketchups
“Joy and Annie and Celine are competing in the mental gymnastics Olympics of excusing the bad behavior of the men in their lives. Jana Casale so intimately captures their ways of thinking that the reader can really see how these smart, capable characters talk themselves into living lives that they don’t enjoy. This book is funny and heartfelt—readers will root for all three of these women as they shake themselves off and start asking what might actually make them happy.”
—CJ Hauser, author of Family of Origin and The Crane Wife
“I am a Jana Casale superfan. In subtle, exquisitely precise prose, she brings her characters—three women who are restrained in different ways by their bodies and their desires—into such crisp focus you almost feel as if you’re watching a documentary about their lives. How to Fall Out of Love Madly astounds with its insights about love and the search for meaning and self-acceptance. Everyone who loves Sally Rooney should be reading Jana Casale!”
—Julie Buntin, author of Marlena
Praise for The Girl Who Never Read Noam Chomsky
“Elegant, sharply drawn…[A] clear-eyed examination of a woman’s life [done] with abundant humor…Readers will be captivated.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Prepare to fall in love with Leda, the wickedly relatable protagonist of Casale’s funny, insightful, and deeply adorable debut…So much fun, so smart, and ultimately profound and beautiful.”
—Kirkus Reviews *starred review*, “11 Debuts You Should Pay Attention To”
“Charming and funny.”
–Samantha Irby, Marie Claire
“A gloriously stunning debut…I wish I had this book when I was younger…In one swift motion, Casale drop-kicked my heart and brushed my hair. She took me to the most intimate moments I’ve had with myself and used Leda to propel me through them…Striking in its reliability and elegant in its honesty.”
–The Michigan Daily
“Veritably thrilling…Casale’s perceptions about womanhood and seamless style make for pure reading joy.”
—Booklist *starred review*
“Common scenes combined with Leda’s piercing vulnerability with readers create Jana Casale’s stellar debut novel…Raw and articulate…Casale’s writing possesses a certain snap, instantly relating us to her protagonist. Reading her work is like watching a play from the dressing room as the heroine squeezes into pants she hopes conceal extra weight, tries to make sense of last week’s one-night stand and murmurs her lines before stepping onto the stage.”
—Associated Press
“How do you account for a life? In Jana Casale’s poignant debut, the answer has as much to do with the things her protagonist, Leda – college student, wife, writer, temporary Orca expert, mother – wanted to do and didn’t, as what she actually lives. A funny, tender and touching illumination of the extraordinary beauty contained in a seemingly everyday life. I can’t stop thinking about this book.”
–Julie Buntin, author of Marlena
“The disarming wit and granular detail of these vignettes feels intensely personal, drawn from the lively mind of a unique character, yet universally recognizable.”
“Jana Casale has several writerly talents, among them sharp eyes for detail, sharp ears for speech and a witty turn of phrase. But her deft control of time is extraordinary, and makes her first novel exciting as well as fun.”
–The Washington Times
“It’s a torch first lit by writers like Jane Austen, Virginia Woolf, and Kate Chopin; one taken up by those like Elena Ferrante, Zadie Smith, Rona Jaffe, Maggie Shipstead, and most recently (and to great world-splitting) Kristen Roupenian — women writers who look closely at the experience of ordinary womanhood, and deem it worthy of great literature…Readers never get the sense that Leda is holding up her life as instruction. Nor, as a cautionary tale. Rather, she’s holding it up as a life worthy of living, worthy of literature. She’s funny and sad, observant and honest, tender and imperfect, complicated and relatable. And that is enough.”
—Bustle
“As the perfect title suggests, the books we don’t read can shape us just as much as the ones we do. However, unlike our titular heroine and her copy of Problems of Knowledge and Freedom, I guarantee you’ll fly through this one. It’s a rare gem of a debut–funny, heartbreaking, and genuinely profound.”
–Ed Park, author of Personal Days
“An immensely companionable read.”
–BookRiot
“The Girl Who Never Read Noam Chomsky is bright with life, emotionally honest and powerfully observant. Jana Casale is a wise and exciting new voice.”
— Julia Pierpont, New York Times bestselling author of Among the Ten Thousand Things
“Jana Casale’s brilliant, singular, gripping debut affected me more than any novel I’ve read this year. Rich with social commentary, fueled by ferocious intelligence, and laced with spot on humor, The Girl Who Never Read Noam Chomsky perfectly captures the mores of this mixed up moment in time, while also exploring universal truths about what it means to be a woman in the world. I loved it.”
–Joanna Rakoff, author of A Fortunate Age and My Salinger Year
“Casale writes with both energy and humor. She is an exquisite storyteller. In creating Leda and her story, Casale magically weaves together the tiny moments in life, allowing them to gain momentum and build off each other, until they culminate into an extraordinary tale that has spunk and charm.”
—Weike Wang, author of Chemistry