“Soukup tackles many issues in this thoughtful, soul-searching story. Social justice, white privilege, the economic divide, and the American Dream hover at the edges of the story in subtle ways and overt conversations between characters. In this way, the story shines with authenticity and realism as Connor encounters two starkly contrasting worlds of plenty and want. He has the luxury of choice and an opportunity at a sort of dress rehearsal for each life—a trial run to see what actually brings contentment. He is also bold enough to pursue the path less traveled despite familial pressures to conform. Brimming with social observation and keen insight, Soukup captures the desire for self-determination. With dialogue that sparkles with intelligent verve and sharp awareness, each page crackles with wisdom. The story tackles all the big quests in modern life related to the pursuit of love, lifestyle, and work with startling results.”

“Soukup’s characters are like tidal waves, the changes in their lives build quietly, grippingly, and crash into the reader with real force. He writes about longing and youth, duty and family with wit and clarity. I’ve read him for years, and while Bliss may be his debut, it is just a glimpse of the gifts he has to offer.”

“Bliss is just one of the emotions pulsating within Soukup’s impressive debut novel. With its finely wrought sentences and painstakingly crafted characters, this book—and its unlikely hero, Connor —traverses the gamut of human experience: Frustration. Despair. Joy. Rage. Hope. And most of all, Love. Or, “near-Love,” perhaps, for the world around him and the world within him. Readers will recognize Connor’s story and they will hear Soukup’s voice.”

“Bliss is deft, moving, and sharply observed, seamlessly weaving together the affluent, superficial world of the suburbs with that of an inner city neighborhood pulsing with energy and danger. But if Frederick Soukup’s novel is a skillful evocation of time and place, it also tells the timeless story of a young man on a quest to find out where—and with whom—he belongs.”

“Fredrick Soukup’s Bliss sets a swift pace from the outset that readers are happy to keep up with as we follow each step taken by Connor, a young man pulled by opposing forces in his elusive search for certainty about his proper place and purpose. Both disaffected and enticed by the bourgeois values of his upbringing, Connor commits himself whole-heartedly to the unfamiliar world of struggling inner-city youth and then, with as much conviction, to the middle-class life he had left behind. We believe in the sincerity of his attachment at each stage and feel the lure of both settings and of the two women he loves. Soukup paints the characters quickly and vividly with prose that sounds like poetry. We are not allowed to enter their minds directly but understand their mentalities thoroughly through their actions and well-crafted dialogue. The novel is full of activity, but the real achievement is the evocation of an internal struggle for an authentic way of life.”

“In Bliss, Fredrick Soukup has put together a story of loss and longing in simple language that drags the reader into the story, wrapping them in want and worry. His characters are rich and deep and inescapable.”