"That’s what I wanted to do -- write a book about horse racing at its low end, in an era considerably before the present moment, and see if there wasn’t an open niche for that. By god, it seems to have happened."

@o_crunk: "Writer Races to Victory From Way Off the Pace (I think Jaimy Gorden is a bit weird in a refreshing way)."

"Though Gordon didn’t expand on 'hope' (indeed, 'expansiveness' was not a word to be applied to any of the writers given medals for new work), the sentiment was clear: Gordon’s was a classic underdog tale, about a little-known writer with a little-seen book who overcame long odds to capture the prize and, at least for one night, revel in the glory (or swoon out of disbelief)."

"Jaimy Gordon’s Lord of Misrule was awarded the National Book Award for Fiction tonight. It’s the second time this year that a high-profile fiction award has gone to a previously very-low-profile novel."

"As I read 'Lord of Misrule,' I was mesmerized by prose like this and intrigued by the accuracy with which the author captured the idiom of the racetrack, the dynamics of backstretch society and the nature of the animals - both their physiology and their personality. How did a university professor know so much about this obscure subculture?"