What people are saying about Ready, Set, Oh:
“Head back to Providence circa 1967 for a gripping exploration of the lives of three adults struggling with questions of who they are and who they’re meant to be. Diane Josefowicz’s debut novel, Ready, Set, Oh weaves together the stories of a medical student, and artist, and an astronomer in the middle of a war where every decision they make has life-changing implications.”
“How do we find our way in life when so many things seem to be conspiring against us or limiting our choices? This insightful, sometimes heartbreaking, and often hilarious novel…”
“Cranston native Diane Josefowicz’s debut novel is set in 1967 Providence, where the upheavals of the ever-present Vietnam War create a tense home front for her characters to explore. Part love story, part coming-of-age novel, part political drama, the story follows several characters trying to make sense of their lives in a tumultuous time in the country’s history. Primrose, an art student, dreams about moving to New York, but her boyfriend, Tino, is more focused on avoiding the draft. Meanwhile, a new social movement wants to link political liberation to UFO sightings, and everyone is just trying to get by. Josefowicz, a director of communications for Swing Left Rhode Island, brings some political flavor to the book as her characters discover their own leanings and how much they’re willing to invest to achieve the future they want.”
“Ready, Set, Oh by Diane Josefowicz is set against the upheavals of the Sixties and chronicles the struggles of a man who has just lost his draft deferment, a young pregnant woman with fragile mental health, and a UFO-chasing astronomer, each hostages in their own way to their families and to history. A compelling and especially engaging story from first page to last, Ready, Set, Oh is all the more impressive when considering that it is author Diane Josefowicz’s debut as a novelist! Showing a genuine flair for originality and an exceptional gift for narrative driven storytelling, Ready, Set, Oh is unreservedly recommended for community library Contemporary Fiction collections.”
“Lively, clear, and true to its period, Ready, Set, Oh is a spyglass shaped by a historian’s sensibility, offering a peek into an era with ironies and hopes in backtalk to our own.”
“Diane Josefowicz’s Ready, Set, Oh is an enthralling novel about some of the most interesting things there are: the Sixties, love, UFOs, and strange manuscripts. ‘Our need for space does not die with us,’ says one of those manuscripts. Ready, Set, Oh explores what it means to long for infinite space while bounded in a nutshell.”
“Darkly humorous, searingly poignant, and seamlessly wrought in sure-handed prose, Diane Josefowicz’s Ready, Set, Oh encompasses both the familiar and the wildly imaginative. Her characters occupy the center of a hell bound world where UFOs flash and deferments loom, where dolphins swim in backyard pools and where a mind is as easy to lose as a wallet. Josefowicz reminds us that tradition grounds us, and curiosity drives us, but it’s always love that saves us.”
“With Ready, Set, Oh, Diane Josefowicz has crafted a riveting narrative of risk and redemption against the backdrop of utterly convincing Sixties turmoil. Here are characters in roiling circumstances you will not soon forget, presented in the searing prose of an authentic artist. Few writers are capable of a first novel of such potency.”
“With great tenderness and wit, Diane Josefowicz explores the particular intensity of coming of age in turbulent times. In beautiful, evocative prose, she captures the longings and anxieties of a group of young people caught up in civil unrest and the anti-war movement.”
“Tino Battuta has always pulled off miracles—including getting admitted to medical school—but 1967 finds him back home in Providence, Rhode Island, a med school drop-out facing the disappointment of his family, the hopes of a psychiatrically-AWOL girlfriend, and the imminent threat of unwelcome draft invitation from his Uncle Sam. These challenges form the raucous backdrop to Diane Josefowicz’s moving, authentic, and vividly imagined novel, Ready, Set, Oh. Josefowicz’s bygone Providence is as fresh and romantic today as it was in the era of SDS protests. With this compelling exploration of friendship, sacrifice, and intergenerational conflict, Josefowicz finds the large truths in our smallest state, leaving an indelible mark on our broader literary landscape. A stunning debut.”
“Every chapter bursts out of the gate in this devastatingly funny, high-intensity novel of working-class Rhode Island. Ready, Set, Oh is a Vietnam-era novel for our Twitter times. As unsentimental, inimitable, and addictive as Amy Hempel or Ottessa Moshfegh, Diane Josefowicz has her ear to the ground, and she doesn’t miss a beat.”
“A story this big could only take place in Rhode Island. Ready, Set, Oh gives you the quahogs, the red gravy, the Italian-from-Italy suits. But you also get a backyard pet dolphin, a mysterious mechanism from ancient Greece, and UFO sightings reported by The Good 5-Cent Cigar, the University of Rhode Island’s student newspaper. Diane Josefowicz captures the late Sixties in tightly crafted scenes that show how the conflicts of the era—in particular premarital sex and the war in Vietnam—played out in suburban living rooms and kitchens.”
“Breathing life into an iconic era, Diane Josefowicz’s captivating novel fully captures the turbulence of the Sixties. Josefowicz details her characters’ loves and losses with a delicate yet breathtaking precision, exposing nuances of political upheaval and secrets of the heart.”
“From the first word, I was plugged into this novel and continued to be surprised and delighted throughout—such good prose writing, such excellent and sensitive thinking about the big things, the things people care about. A great debut.”
“Intense, tragic, slyly funny, and deeply felt, Ready, Set, Oh is a story of family, womanhood, and dreams denied by vagaries of life both mundane and unexpected. Each of Diane Josefowicz’s characters is fascinatingly distinct: I couldn’t help but root for them all.”
“Ready, Set, Oh is a tender yet sharply observed first novel about a group of friends coming of age in the midst of tumult. Josefowicz brings humanity, warmth and disarming humor to lovable, struggling characters, exploring their affinities and conflicts.”