**One of the Brooklyn Rail 's Best Books of 2017** "Nicorvo is a bracingly original writer and a joy to read." ―Dennis Lehane "A desperate masterpiece of a debut" that tells a huge-hearted American saga―of love, violence, war, conspiracy and the aftermath of them all." ―Bonnie Jo Campbell "Nicorvo’s muscular and energetic prose will stun readers with its poignancy, while providing a punch to the solar plexus." ― Booklist (Starred Review) "A dash of Coetzee, a dram of Delillo, but mostly just the complicated compassion of Jay Nicorvo. The Standard Grand is a brutally beautiful novel." ―Pam Houston, author of Contents May Have Shifted "It seems possible that Nicorvo has ingested all the darkness of this life and now breathes fire.” Nick Flynn, author of Another Bullshit Night in Suck City When an Army trucker goes AWOL before her third deployment, she ends up sleeping in Central Park. There, she meets a Vietnam vet and widower who inherited a tumbledown Borscht Belt resort. Converted into a halfway house for homeless veterans, the Standard―and its two thousand acres over the Marcellus Shale Formation―is coveted by a Houston-based multinational company. Toward what end, only a corporate executive knows. With three violent acts at its center―a mauling, a shooting, a mysterious death decades in the past―and set largely in the Catskills, The Standard Grand spans an epic year in the lives of its diverse cast: a female veteran protagonist, a Mesoamerican lesbian landman, a mercenary security contractor keeping secrets and seeking answers, a conspiratorial gang of combat vets fighting to get peaceably by, and a cougar―along with appearances by Sammy Davis, Jr. and Senator Al Franken. All of the characters―soldiers, civilians―struggle to discover that what matters most is not that they’ve caused no harm, but how they make amends for the harm they’ve caused. Jay Baron Nicorvo's The Standard Grand confronts a glaring cultural omission: the absence of women in our war stories. Like the best of its characters―who aspire more to goodness than greatness―this American novel hopes to darn a hole or two in the frayed national fabric. "Nicorvo has a masterful and playful use of language that keeps the story fresh, alive and immediate...a satisfying and complex layering of emotions and desires." ― The Rumpus "[A] promising debut..its vibrant style and twisting plot ― at one point a character is mauled by a cougar ― make for an appropriately complex snapshot of America’s relationship with the men and women who defend it." ― Publishers Weekly "In capturing the story of one deserter's search for love and redemption in an increasingly corporatized America, Nicorvo carves out something truly original." ― Library Journal "...a seamless blend of road-trip saga, love story, and critique of military contractors...the novel is thematically a straightforward tale about finding a home…but Nicorvo smartly renders the legal, corporate, and military forces that can stand in the way of so simple a goal. An ambitious novel that effectively braids corporate greed, outdoorsy grit, and human connection." ― Kirkus Reviews "Magnificent storytelling. A stunning debut novel, The Standard Grand definitely marks Jay Baron Nicorvo as an author to watch." ― LitStack "An outstanding novel ― funny, heartbreaking and important...should be required reading for understanding veterans." ― The Gazette "Jay Baron Nicorvo is a bracingly original writer and a joy to read." ―Dennis Lehane "With sentences that flow like water down a mountain, Nicorvo’s muscular and energetic prose will stun readers with its poignancy, while providing a punch to the solar plexus. Whipsmart dialogue and keen emotional insight bring a ragtag, damaged, but lovable cast of characters to life...[An] exceptional first novel... The Standard Grand is an important and deeply human contribution to the national conversation." ― Booklist (Starred Review) "I find few things more hopeful, in these darkening times, than a writer who can stare, unblinking, into the gut-wrenching destruction humans are wreaking upon each other and the earth, and still find shards of humor and humanity. A dash of Coetzee, a dram of DeLillo, but mostly just the complicated compassion of Jay Nicorvo. The Standard Grand is a brutally beautiful novel." ―Pam Houston, author of Contents May Have Shifted "With profound compassion for his outrageously wonderful characters, Nicorvo brings readers to a defunct and decaying Catskills resort where a ghost platoon of vets are surviving among dangers both natural and human-made. Insanely funny, by turns tragic and, ultimately, redemptive, The Standard Grand is a desperate masterpiece of a debut: honest, epic, constantly surprising, and relentlessly entertaining.” ― Bonnie Jo Campbell, finalist for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award, and author of American Salvage and Once Upon A River "