Losing Graceland Cover Art
  • “Nathan presents the reader with several fantastic characters in this rollicking, adventurous tale. Readers will pore through this fast-paced, adrenaline-filled novel and eat up the fantastic dialogue that brings Elvis back to life in a new, deliciously lascivious way.”
    — Julie Hunt, Booklist
  • “…engaging…a blend of the slapstick and the slapdash, the ironic and the painfully sincere…a wild road trip, a yarn spiced with plenty of humor and romance….”
    — Michael Lindgren, The Washington Post
  • “A novel of lost souls and a lost America . . . the idea of Elvis Presley hiding in plain sight as an Elvis impersonator is a stroke of genius. Losing Graceland is pure entertainment.”
    Tottenville Review
  • “Less about the hip-swiveling sex icon and more about friendship, Losing Graceland isn’t just a tall tale of another Elvis impersonator, but about life’s journey through bumps in the road….The road to Memphis is an interesting, if not endearing one, for the pair, who — gold rings and jumpsuit aside — find themselves to be surprisingly similar.”
    — Kelci Shipley, Marie Claire
  • "…Ben has undreamed-of experiences on this strange journey….with quirky characters and homespun wisdom, this will appeal to fans of literary coming-of-age-stories.”
    — Cheryl Conway, Library Journal
  • “In all the commercial and cultural carryings-on that are likely to happen in this, Elvis’ 76th birthday season, one of the richest may be Micah Nathan’s second novel Losing Graceland….a highly entertaining and rambunctiously readable second novel.”
    — Jeff Simon, The Buffalo News



  • “The duo’s adventures—brawling with the biker gang Hell’s Foster Children, competing in Elvis impersonator contests, visiting hillbilly oracles—are entertaining…”
    Publishers Weekly
  • “Micah Nathan’s first novel, Gods of Aberdeen, was a critically acclaimed story of adolescent angst. His follow-up, Losing Graceland, mines similar thematic territory as it follows another central male character, Ben Fish, on a wild and weird road trip….a fun, fast read for Presley devotees and coming-of-age fiction fans alike.”
    — Lizza Connor Bowen, Book Page
  • “Thus begins the weirdest of buddy adventures, with feckless Ben playing first mate to the is-he-or-isn’t-he Elvis, a superannuated hillbilly with the unearthly self-possession of a Zen master. En route to points south, the adventurers tangle with a one-eyed pimp, a trio of roadhouse sirens, a backwoods soothsayer, and other low-rent variations on a Homeric theme…[with] antic originality [and] the near-magic realism of Elvis as a geriatric Ulysses….”
    — Amanda Heller, The Boston Globe




  • “…a rambunctious coming-of-age tale…”
    — Colette Bancroft, St. Petersburg Times


  • “Micah Nathan’s low- and high-spirited, rambunctious road novel is an exploration of loss, faith, and human frailty—and as befits a story involving a character who just might be Elvis Presley, it’s also sad, unpredictable, and rather tragically funny.”
    — Brian Groh, author of Summer People
  • “Micah Nathan is a hell of a writer. Losing Graceland is a postmodern picaresque, overflowing with sly wit, pop culture icons, contemporary fretfulness, authentically touching revelations, and, most important, plain old good writing. Nathan writes with a grace and eloquence that is all too rare. He understands the awesome power of storytelling and myth making, and has written a book as much about that power as it is an example of it. A textured and deeply gratifying literary journey.”
    Alden Bell, author of The Reapers Are the Angels
  • “Losing Graceland is an alluring parable for a generation forced to find adulthood in the wreckage their elders have left behind in Great Recession America…Micah Nathan—his perspective pleasantly off-kilter, his voice spare, wry, and occasionally down-right evocative—has created a confident narrative for Ben Fish’s road trip of introspection and self discovery.”
    Stephen White, author of the NYT bestselling Alan Gregory series

Once Were Warriors

November 20, 2010

As mentioned on my FB page: Booklist’s review of “Losing Graceland” is now available. Driving home yesterday and heard Whitesnake’s “Here I Go Again” playing on a soft-rock channel, which is the only place I’ve heard that song over the past five years. It used to be a hair-metal anthem—granted, a radio-friendly one—but at least [...]

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And They Trickle…

November 9, 2010

January 27th will find me at Northeastern University’s bookstore. Reading, signing, etc. The Library Journal gave LG a very nice review. Scout had his staples removed. This is what the wound looks like: Rather medieval, yes? A mountain range on a salt map also comes to mind. Brian Jenkins, my sometimes-research assistant–and partner in various [...]

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Buffalo Reading(s)

November 2, 2010

Hope you all voted. For whoever. Wherever. If you did not, your complaining privileges are revoked until the next election. We have an official Buffalo launch date: January 13th, 7 p.m., at Buffalo’s finest indie bookstore Talking Leaves. There will be a brief reading, an extended Q&A, and drinks thereafter. Venue to be determined, though [...]

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A Quick One While He’s Away

October 28, 2010

I’ll be appearing at the 2011 Virginia Festival of the Book. Two panels, both on March 19th (Saturday), one hosted by the indomitable Bella Stander. The Virginia Foundation for the Humanities does excellent work, so if you’re in the area, take a detour and join us. I took 15 mg. of valium today, in preparation [...]

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Throwback Thursdays: A Study of Emotionally Deprived 80’s Character Actors

October 26, 2010

A few years back, while sitting in my therapist’s office during a particularly acute—but not unexpected— bout of self-loathing and existential malaise, my therapist asked me to give the internal criticism a voice. What did the self-loathing sound like? My answer arrived swiftly: James Spader. Thus was coined the term “Spaderian”, evoking the pursed lips, [...]

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Ünshü®

October 25, 2010

I’ve been working on a business plan for the past year or so—okay, maybe business plan is a bit much, it’s more like an idea that won’t leave me alone—and it’s time to make it public. The Concept: A high-fashion retail store that hyperspecializes in one product. The product? A single shoe. One size per [...]

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Blech

October 21, 2010

What do you do when your dog gets sick every other morning? “Sick” as in frothy bile. A vet visit, perhaps. Four hundred bucks later–I imagine some sort of scope will be inserted–and the prognosis will be antacids. I’m hoping. Hard to imagine that heavily-muscled, high-energy beast has something seriously wrong, but bad luck does [...]

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Fall, Mango, Fiction

October 14, 2010

This is what Thursday morning looks like, outside my front door: This is what mango-flavored pineapple looks like. Well, the box, anyway: Has it really been that long since the last update? I’ve been busy. Sort of. Playing with my iPod Touch (an absolute time-leech), starting (and stopping) various projects, doing weird stuff like lawn [...]

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T-minus a few months

September 28, 2010

The book launch of Losing Graceland will be at Brookline Booksmith, January 4th, 7 p.m. Drinks/food/dancing to follow, though we’re not sure where (former star-student Lisa D. works at the Regal Beagle, a fine establishment right across the street, and we might go there, or we might hit Golden Temple just like last time, when [...]

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Double post

September 17, 2010

Forgot to mention my 6-week writing class begins September 22, courtesy of Grub Street. As of this post, there’s one seat left. Here’s a link for the curious. We’ll be covering story and structure–hence the appropriately-titled “Story and Structure”. Apropos of very little, I have a title for my next book. A title but no [...]

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