“Wise, funny, quirky, poignant novel… palpable yearning for love that you will feel in your gut”

“Can this wise, funny, quirky, poignant novel really be Dale Kushner’s debut? She got everything just right—characters who you will never forget and a palpable yearning for love that you will feel in your gut. Bravo!”

—Ann Hood, The Stolen Child

"Amazing sense of character… an immaculately written, enthralling, and passionate debut”

“Kushner has an amazing sense of character and not only her heroine, the fearless Eunice, but everyone the Eunice encounters comes vividly to life as she struggles first to accommodate herself to her mother’s tumultuous feelings and then to make her own way in the world. An immaculately written, enthralling, and passionate debut."

—Margot Livesey, The Road from Belhaven

“Bracing, oddly uplifting… a fine exploration of growing up, weathering heartbreak and picking oneself up over and over”

“A teenage girl endures fire, flood and the loss of her parents in this bracing, oddly uplifting debut.

Kushner seems to have taken more than a few lessons from Joyce Carol Oates about both crafting a novel with a broad scope and putting female characters through the wringer. But there’s also a lightness to Eunice’s narration that keeps the Job-ian incidents from feeling oppressive—she’s observant, witty and genuinely matures across the nine years in which the novel is set… Kushner is remarkably poised for a first-time novelist, offering an interesting adolescent who’s possessed of more than a little of Huck Finn’s pioneer spirit.

A fine exploration of growing up, weathering heartbreak and picking oneself up over and over.”

—Kirkus Reviews

“Artfully drawn… combines literary style with heartbreaking plot twists and still manages to be uplifting

“Eunice grows up fighting for love from the people who should love her unconditionally but is bolstered by love from unexpected sources… Eunice is a lonely, artistic girl who grows into a temperamental young woman whose strength and capacity for love belie her tough upbringing. This is poet Kushner’s first novel, and her roots show; passages describing even the bleakest Midwestern landscapes are artfully drawn. A coming-of-age story that wonderfully combines literary style with heartbreaking plot twists and still manages to be uplifting…”

—Booklist

“A moving, at times jolting, saga… expertly sketched, vivid and memorable”

“The Conditions of Love is the debut novel of Dale M. Kushner, a poet and writer in Wisconsin. It moves slowly and gingerly during its opening section when Eunice is a preteen, and it might easily be viewed at the start as a coming-of-age book for a younger set of readers. But by the end of that section, when facts-of-life shocks begin to strike, it turns into a moving, at times jolting, saga.

Kushner’s scenes, like her characters, are expertly sketched, vivid and memorable… Engrossing to the end, this is a fine first novel.”

—Kendall Weaver, The Associated Press

“Kushner deftly captures Eunice… a beautifully written book, demanding time and attention”

“Kushner deftly captures Eunice in all her awkward years as well as her adult relationship with Fox. The setting—small-town Midwest—means that Eunice remains almost untouched by social and political events of the 1950’s and 1960’s. Instead, the period comes out in the small details… This is a beautifully written book, demanding time and attention.”

—Historical Novel Society

“A tribute to Dale Kushner’s talent… she can pack so much emotional reality in so few words”

“It’s a tribute to Dale Kushner’s talent that in her debut novel, The Conditions of Love, she can pack so much emotional reality in so few words: maternal narcissism in a sentence, family dysfunction in a paragraph.”

—Kevin O’Kelly, The Rumpus

“A layered examination of love in all its forms and how it impacts… slow down and relish the words”

“With her debut novel, The Conditions of Love, poet Dale M. Kushner has created a layered examination of love in all its forms and how it impacts and shapes one girl in the late 1950s and early 1960s from childhood to maturity.. . .

This is a book that begs to be read slowly. Kushner’s history with poetry serves her well. Her prose causes the reader to slow down and relish the words. She utilizes the five senses throughout the book, which gives the reader a sense of real intimacy with Eunice. She beautifully recounts the physical act of Eunice’s neighbor, Mr. Tabachnik, putting on an opera record, and then she tops it by describing the powerful music washing over a young Eunice.

The Conditions of Love is an engaging story written in a lyrical style. It’s a stunningly self-assured novel for a debut, and it leaves the reader hoping that Kushner will write a second.”

—Josh Mallory, Bookreporter

“Passion and perception… her depth and experience surface through her writing as a wise companion to help us on our way”

“Dale Kushner is a remarkable mix of passion and perception. As a storyteller, she has the ability to let the mysterious force of life show itself through the smallest piece of dirt or doubt. Her depth and experience surface through her writing as a wise companion to help us on our way.”

—Mark Nepo, The Book of Awakening

“Poetry on every page… full of texture and dimension, so much of which is unseen to the eye and yet felt so deeply”

“What a world Dale Kushner has created. Words don’t seem adequate to express such large, surround-sound feelings. I fell in love with this book, the story, the poetry on every page. I inhaled the book and felt like I spent these last days in nature, seeing and experiencing everything up close, my senses awakened, doused, indulged.

These characters were powerful–their flaws and their magnificence. How well and accurately Dale captured how we are all broken, and broken open, full of texture and dimension, so much of which is unseen to the eye and yet felt so deeply.

What a constellation I had access to, filled with these brilliant people, collages, all of them.

This book filled every chamber of my heart and made me fall in love with language all over again, made me want to write because I could suddenly hear my own inner songs. The Conditions of Love breathed new, good life into my lungs and under my skin.

What I want more than anything, as a reader, is to experience a story in a way that causes the inner plates to shift. This book did that. I am forever humbled, grateful.

—Jodi Cohen, Reader

“Awoke some mode of coping in my soul… to explore the complex relationships between members of our rather nontraditional family”

“Dear Dale,

I am writing to let you know how important and significant your novel was recently in my life. I picked up your book this summer at a used bookstore in Bayfield, Wisconsin, on a return trip to Madeline Island. We have been vacationing on the island with our family for years and were married there about 20 years ago.

My husband has had to endure two rounds of treatment for prostate cancer that have had an extremely troubling effect on our intimacy and sexual relationship. The climax to the situation occurred this summer as we have been adjusting to the effects of 7 weeks of radiation treatment. Your novel awoke some mode of coping in my soul that, while not solving the situation quickly, has given me a path forward.

In a wider way, the book also helped me to explore the complex relationships between members of our rather nontraditional family that includes a blended family of 5 half-grown brothers and sisters, and one youngest child I had while married to my current husband.

It is important, I think, to mark moments when the work we do affects others, and so in that spirit I am writing you. Thank you.”

—A.L., Reader

“Pure art… something new to me every time I read it”

“Dear Ms. Kushner,

It honestly feels surreal writing this email. I'll keep it short and hopefully profound, as I've found you do often in your writing.

I found your book, The Conditions of Love, when I was twelve. It was on the recommended table of a closing bookstore, and I decided to buy it based on the cover alone. When I finally got around to reading it, I was blown away. I sat down on my carpet, read for the next five hours, and finished it for the first time. I decided to annotate it a month later, still fresh on my mind, but I gave up when I started highlighting every line.

This book, your book, is pure art.

I re-read it every few months, open it up to a random page, and dive into the world of Eunice. I will love this book forever; it means something new to me every time I read it. Even now, I can't say for sure why I love this book so much. Maybe it's the nostalgia. Or the way you write, so full of life and truth. It could be the similarities I can draw to my own life and the life I haven't yet lived. All I know is that I love this book, the characters, and the imperfect way they love each other.

Your book, as well as your poems and blogs, have inspired me in so many ways. Your words are so eerily authentic, straight from universal secrets that I thought were unquestionably taboo and unique to me. It's like Eunice predicted my life before it happened, and yet the two of us could not be less alike.

I'm not sure if this email will ever find you, but I can only hope that the sentiment carries somewhere. Thank you for bringing this book into the world and for changing my life in ways I couldn't have begun to predict as a twelve-year-old.

Thank you.”

—D.B., Reader