Lipshitz Six, or Two Angry Blondes
(Penguin, 2007)

A Los Angeles Times Bestseller

“Best Book of 2006”
— The Believer & Austin Chronicle

The only known novel (in any language) about Russian immigrant Jews, the aviator Charles Lindbergh, and an Eminem-impersonator who performs on the NYC bar mitzvah circuit.

“A glorius identity-bending, multigenerational epic.”

—Time Out New York

“Whether it’s enjoyed as an immigrant saga, a multigenerational family tale, or a sly commentary on the phenomenon of fame in our time, Cooper’s novel reveals a fresh, engaging voice that will capture the reader’s imagination from the first word and hold it to the last.”
— Book Page

“Lipshitz Six, or Two Angry Blondes is one of the finest novels I've read in the last decade.”

—The Stranger (Paul Constant)

“A strangely compelling tale… an unsettling but intriguing meditation on the power of genetics to shape a person’s world.”
— The Providence Journal

A very weird adn wonderful quasi-epistolary, quasi-postmodern novel.”

—Santa Fe Reporter

“Cooper’s talent lies in his ability to capture the endlessly complex nature of families and their shared memories.”

—The Washington Post

“Cooper’s storytelling skills are phenomenal. He effortlessly shifts perspectives, from the unhappy Esther and her downtrodden husband to their gay son, before switching to first person for the coda. Throughout, his experiments are divine. They serve to make this peculiar family feel real.”
—Time Out New York

“Lipshitz Six, or Two Angry Blondes is a brave novel of poignancy, reverberations, and ingenuity.”

—David Mitchell

“T Cooper is an American original. I love this book.”

—Jennifer Haigh

“T Cooper is our new Don DeLillo. This novel is like a filament, threaded insdie history and lighting it from the inside-out.”

—Alexander Chee

“T Cooper is a proigioius talent. This novel is more than just a smart, stylish page-turner; you’ll find some of the most audacious thinking in America today between its covers.”

—Darin Strauss

“Brilliant.” —Texas Monthly

“Enthralling.” —The Baltimore Sun

“Gripping.” —Booklist

“What distinguishes Cooper’s take [on the European Jewish diaspora] is its utter lack of sentimentality. No overbearing but ultimately well meaning Jewish mother figures in Lipshitz Six. Instead, we get Esther Lipshitz… Not since Sophie Portnoy has there been a Jewish mother from quite the same place in hell… This kooky but strangely compelling story… is further enhanced by Cooper’s considerable descriptive powers, which bring to life such varied tableaus as a Russian pogrom, a Lower East Side gang fight and a Lindbergh rally in Oklahoma City… [T]he story of Esther…resonates long after book has been closed.”
— The New York Times Book Review

“Cooper has an affinity for creative liberties, even in anything-goes 21st-century fiction, liberties of stunning sort… This is not another generic everyday family saga, not when it starts in the Russian pogroms, jogs past Charles Lindbergh and closes with a guy who impersonates rapper Eminem at bar mitzvahs.”

— Seattle Post Intelligencer