The Walking Tanteek named one of the books of the year by Canadian Notes & Queries
http://notesandqueries.ca/blog/books-of-the-year/
The Walking Tanteek makes Mark Sampson’s Top Ten List for 2014:
http://freerangereading.blogspot.ca/2014/12/2014-reading-year-in-review.html
Review by Mark Sampson in Free Range Reading Blog, October 18, 2014:
“The Walking Tanteek is a powerful, cosmic, and often very funny read. Woods seems to defy gravity itself as she sets up scenes of both hilarity and poignancy.”
Review by Lee Trentadue in 49th Shelf, July, 2014:
“Jane writes with dark humour, tough language, and gorgeous lyricism…She had me on the first page and did not let go…It is a delightful ride. My absolutely favourite book this year!”
Review by Amy Anderson in Scene Magazine, May 22 – June 4, 2014:
Writer Jane Woods tells the story of Maggie between two funerals in her debut novel, The Walking Tanteek. The first funeral is like a bomb tossed into the commune run by Maggie’s brother Gerald, an angry preacher who holds his small congregation in thrall with his rants and threats. A young boy has died, and Maggie awakens from her mindless grind when she becomes a surrogate mother to little Desi, a brief light in her life. Desi and Maggie form their own culture, a small break from the cult of drug addicts and burn-outs, and it is only her long alcoholism and resignation that
prevent her from being his true foster parent. For a time, she stops drinking, stops her existential wonderings and becomes alive in the moment. When Desi’s cruel mother
returns for him, Maggie blankets herself in drugs. Of this experience, Woods writes,
“I feel as if I’ve been impersonating myself every single day I’ve spent on earth until
now.” Maggie’s story is like a battering ram against the door to rock bottom, a penting
up of potential energy, a meandering line of dominoes. The writer doesn’t skirt away
from darkness, shame, pain, loneliness. Self-loathing. And she has a beautiful way of putting things. Every word she puts down here is true, though these are the sort of truths many spend their lives running from. Maggie included. Jane Woods has written a dark novel about hope, a sleepwalker’s tale of the waking world. Nothing matters, and so everything matters.
Review by Mary Corkery in The Catholic Register, May 30, 2014:
“Jane Woods is a skilled artist. Her unique characters starkly drawn and thorny.”
“You can get carried away by the energy and extravagance of Woods’ writing, the aptness of her metaphors…which is what makes this such an absorbing and even pleasurable read…”
Wayne Johnston, author of The Son of a Certain Woman:
“JaneWoods has written a remarkable, unflinchingly frank and unapologetically affirmative first novel. She asks a big question — is there meaning in the universe — and finds, with humility and grace, that the answer is yes. Her characters are unforgettable, and her story deeply moving. Don’t miss out on what will be one of the great reading experiences of your life.”
David Adams Richards, author of Incidents in the Life of Markus Paul:
“A strange and wonderful book imbued with a touch of genius that seeks and grants both shelter and love for the wayward child in all of us.”
Michelle Berry, author of This Book Will Not Save Your Life:
“A rollicking, witty, fast-paced first novel about middle-aged Maggie Prentice and her attempts to understand faith, humanity, death and love. From the first sentence this novel grabs you and never lets go. Maggie offers up a slew of brilliant verbal gymnastics as she navigates her wild, weird world. She is a character you won’t soon forget living in a novel that is truly engaging.”
