This intense yet sensitive dark comedy by Australian Goorie-European author Melissa Lucashenko (Mullumbimby) never holds back in its portrayal of an Indigenous family in crisis... Crows talk and ancestors appear in this #ownvoices triumph about a family who find each other difficult to live with but impossible to stop loving. Too Much Lip's stark honesty illuminates a version of Indigenous life, the crippling influence of colonization and the hard-won power of resilience and healing. - Shelf Awareness Starred Review Because this is an authentic voice writing about what it means to be an Indigenous Australian in contemporary times, Lucashenko has taken on the tough issues that come with generational trauma - displacement, incarceration, abuse, racism, substance abuse, poverty, marginalisation. She doesn't shy away from any of it, nor is she preachy or bitter. She does it with humour, satire, dialogue with the kind of wild wit that can come with profanity. It is the voice of her people, her world. Measured and layered, the comedy leavens the tragedy. The great achievement is finding the balance; the redemption and understanding. - Sydney Morning Herald A daughter gets caught in her Aboriginal Australian family's complicated legacy in Indigenous Australian writer Lucashenko's darkly funny U.S. debut....With strong voices and kinetic prose, Lucashenko's engrossing narrative speaks to the ongoing traumas of indigenous life in Australia. This deserves to make a splash. - Publishers Weekly In this vividly voiced novel, the ghosts of the past are never far away. - Booklist Too Much Lip's language is addictively poetic, its cry for social justice real; it's powered by literary rocket fuel. - Zoe Morrison This is not a story of suffering. This is a story of fighting back. ... Vibrating with energy, both heartrending and hilarious, Too Much Lip offers a compelling multi-dimensional portrait of human strength in the face of human failure. ...We see the prismatic effects of colonialism's violence and racism, damage cascading down through generations. [The author] deftly voices these characters' pain and rage, but her humor also crackles across the pages. ... The writing is consistently funny, but rather than serving to soften or balance, the humor instead lances and sharpens and reveals. - Chicago Review of Books An award-winning Australian author explores family dysfunction and the legacy of colonial oppression in her American debut. . . . Original, honest, and surprisingly funny. - Kirkus Reviews In Too Much Lip, Lucashenko has created an iconic Australian regional community, one that you would expect to stumble into while driving through the backroads of northern New South Wales. - Sydney Review of Books Melissa Lucashenko is one of Australia's most prolific contemporary writers, producing funny and gritty realist novels. The Miles Franklin award-winning Too Much Lip...is no exception. - The Australian Too Much Lip is a worthy addition to the work of such original and passionate writers as Kim Scott and Alexis Wright. Talking crows, a talking shark: these are the surreal and symbolic bookends to a story that so often feels hopeless, yet is still the crucible of hope. - Australian Book Review Too Much Lip ... brilliantly showcases Lucashenko's talent for constructing funny, fraught and powerful stories driven by complex characters and compelling, true-to-life dramas. - Readings Melissa Lucashenko's angry Australian Western is a thrilling read. - The Saturday Paper Melissa Lucashenko writes about class and race in Australia with so much guts and heart and brains. - Kate Evans What makes Too Much Lip not only engaging while reading, but memorable, is its tangible roots, which burrow deeply into the realities of Australian existence, through the author, this country, and now, this reader. - Mascara Literary Review Where to start with the delights of Too Much Lip? Lucashenko's dialog is absolutely true yet fabulously entertaining ... [and] each character is a gem. - Spectrum
