Schmidt Steps Back

“ Tragic and redemptive . . . Updike had Rabbit, Roth has Zuckerman, Richard Ford has Bascombe and Begley has Schmidt. . . .  [ Schmidt Steps Back ] is the most ambitious novel [yet] in the Schmidt cycle.”— Kirkus Reviews (starred review)   Full of dark humor, compassion, and heart, Schmidt Steps Back is the most romantic installment yet of the drama that began with the acclaimed About Schmidt . Now seventy-eight, and just as passionate, sharp, and endearingly prickly as ever, Albert S