Biography
Benjamin Lytal has written for numerous publications, including the Wall Street Journal, the London Review of Books, and the Nation. Originally from Tulsa, he currently lives in Chicago.
More Info
- A Map of Tulsa is Benjamin Lytal’s first novel.
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Reviews
Patrick Langley
Times Literary Supplement
'A Map of Tulsa is infused with the poignancy that comes of being too naïve and narcissistic to value what you already have … A Map of Tulsa has a drifting, and somewhat aimless quality in keeping with the rudderless desires of youth. Lytal’s strongest gifts lie in the offbeat, lyrical way he conjures up the emptiness of Tulsa…’
Hector Tobar
Los Angeles Times
‘Tender and engaging. . . . . A memorable coming-of-age tale about hometown ambivalence and finding a place in the world. . . . The tension between the cosmopolitan and provincial, the sensuous and the chaste, is a big reason why A Map of Tulsa is so memorable. . . . [Lytal’s] great achievement in A Map of Tulsa is to bring his hometown to life as a place where all sorts of American ghosts can be found living amid the seemingly generic landscape of a midsized, middle-American city.’
The New Yorker
‘This lyrical slow burn of a book is . . . a meditation on place, destiny, and fate.’
New York Times
‘Mr. Lytal, a Tulsa native, gets the push and pull of home just right.’
Tom Bissell
Harper’s Magazine
‘A Map of Tulsa deserves comparison with the very best novels of its kind, from James Salter’s A Sport and a Pastime to Scott Spencer’s Endless Love. It’s also one of the most insightful books about the comforts (and traps) of small-city parochialism I’ve ever read.’
Christian Lorentzen
Bookforum
‘A romance of the West, an Oklahoma of glass skyscrapers, oil fortunes, and dive bars. Lytal’s first novel is a love story and a tragedy and a stunning work of lyricism.’