“With this charming, darkly funny story about “the beautiful kind of too much,” Perry asks where we draw the line between good crazy and bad crazy, between normal and abnormal, and what happens if we don't fit on the spectrum, and why that’s OK... How all this pans out is where a lesser writer might crash to earth... Perry, however, never loses his footing.”

“Heartbreaking and hilarious... Perry’s characters are unforgettable... From its madcap title to its choice chapter headings to its clueless males and their capable if baffled women, the book is a triumph.”
—Karen Brady, The Buffalo News

“As convincingly as Perry swift-paddles the perilous waters of love, he just as ably limns male comaraderie in all of its bantering rawness and fatherly parenting... His comic touch is equally consistent... The rough and tumble of men and women trying to make sense, eye-to-eye, toe-to-toe never leaves our view. The novel’s final collision sparks operatic.”
—Ted Weesner, Jr., The Boston Globe

“I really enjoyed this book, as much for its dialogue, which is really natural and occasionally really funny, as for [the] parts where Jack tries to work out how he can do better by himself and those in his life.”
—Douglas George, The Chicago Tribune

“Perry’s novel is a finely tuned character study and a compelling read which deserves all the attention it gets... [He] has managed to create in Jack Lang the kind of original a reader can admire in the pages of a novel—a Don Quixote, tilting at windmills, a builder of a “Backyard Sidewalk Tricycle Racetrack” for a child who refuses to ride on his Big Wheel.”
—Jack Goodstein, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

“Perry has nailed some key observations about modern life, like the tiny, compulsive gestures we make to convince ourselves that we still have some control. He notes the complexity of marriages and romantic relationships that never really end, especially when a child is involved... In the process, [he] manages to say a lot about the state of the 21st century human heart. This is just exactly the way a lot of us are.”
—Ben Steelman, Wilmington Star-News

“Most poignant are Jack’s tender, if bewildered, interactions with his son, Hen, a six-year-old savant... Jack’s good intentions don’t quite pave the road to Hell, but they do mastermind the construction of a “backyard sidewalk tricycle racetrack” for Hen, accented with fiberglass crustaceans rescued from a defunct mini-golf course. Ultimately, Perry’s debut is as charming, as touching, and as odd as Jack’s magnum opus.”
—The Oxford American, Editors' Picks

“A beautiful rant against the so-called sane majority. And very funny: a dead-on, hilariously sad account—without a scintilla of sentimentality—of raising a brilliant autistic child in a marriage gone mad on account of it.”
—Brad Watson, National Book Award finalist for A Heaven of Mercury and author of the forthcoming Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives

“[A] striking debut novel about a man whose responsibilities haven't yet overcome his ambitions... a riveting familial drama... [and] a charitable and bleakly funny portrait of the American dream gone off the rails.”
—Kirkus Reviews
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“Drew Perry's wonderful debut will hold readers spellbound from beginning to end—think A Midsummer Night's Dream set in a small college town, plus a dog named Yul Brynner. The estranged grownups switch partners and dance back and forth with some of the liveliest dialogue I've read in years, all while struggling to come face to face with reality. And at the center of this often comical, sometimes tragic chaos is that reality—a child, Hendrick, brilliant and autistic—with the power to ultimately pull this cast of memorable characters back into the light of day, and give them new perspective on what is most important. Perry is a gifted writer, and this novel, with its wit and warmth and wisdom, is an absolute winner.”

—Jill McCorkle, author of Going Away Shoes and Ferris Beach


“First-time novelist Perry tells a story that, in summary, seems like a rehash of a Lifetime movie-of-the-week. Beth and Jack Lang’s marriage hits the rocks, and when she moves in with his best friend, Jack is left alone to care for their son Hendrick, who has autism. Alone, that is, until his best friend’s girlfriend Rena shows up on his doorstep. But what Perry does with this seemingly paint-by- numbers story is anything but predictable and melodramatic. The reasons behind Beth leaving Jack are at once believable and at the same time poignant; “You can’t just let everything happen to you,” she says, and Jack’s attempts to make sense of this are at the center of the novel. Hendrick is the best part of both their lives and the book—as Jack’s world unravels around him, Hendrick proves to be both an anchor and a source of many surprises. Perry doesn’t shy away from looking closely at the how and why of the crumbling marriage, but lightens the mood with witty writing reminiscent of Tom Perrotta.”
—Booklist

“A terrifically accomplished study of character and motive, and a deeply personal tale of life with an autistic child, all carried off in a narrative voice that is winning, funny, and true. I loved this book. It moved me. I recommend it to anyone who has ever had, been, or known a troubled child.”
—Mark Childress, author of One Mississippi and Crazy in Alabama

“Like all the very best novels, This Is Just Exactly Like You will make you first forget your own life and then reevaluate it. Drew Perry has written a beautiful and riveting book about the relationships that won’t let us go, and the heartwarming human comedy that we call love.”
—Nina de Gramont, author of Gossip of the Starlings and Of Cats and Men

“This is a richly imagined, beautifully written, and completely absorbing work of fiction. I found myself spellbound, turning pages well past my bedtime. What a fine, fine book.”
—Tim O'Brien, winner of the National Book Award and author of The Things They Carried