She sets down the pains and pleasures of living in a spare, singing prose, not a word wasted

Munro is so good one gropes for superlatives

Alice Munro has a strong claim to being the best fiction writer now working in North America

Alice Munro is among the major writers of English fiction of our time

Simple, rich with dialogue and precious

[Pancake’s] words…combined with an unsparing vision of humanity create the spine-tingling sense that you’re reading an original

Haunting brilliance

By any standards, [the story “Trilobites”] is a masterpiece; that it is an artistic debut is astonishing… To say that Breece D’J Pancake is not well enough known is a massive understatement… Quite simply, a literary genius

Impressive

Misfits and twisted individuals loom large throughout these urbane stories . . . satirically edged.

Paul Theroux combines the traveller's hawk eye with the novelist's keen insight. . .[he has] an uncanny ability to rivet the reader.

A masterpiece of wit and elegance.

The author charts the various stages of life with engaging curiosity and earthy compassion... The publishers, Jonathan Cape, have done a fine job with this handsome and substantial collection.

All the customary satisfactions of Burnside's writing – anomie, menace, flashes of violence and cruelty, hallucination and snow – but multiplied.

Even Burnside’s most routine stories have beauty and intelligence. He is never less than something like brilliant.

A tremendous collection from a writer working at the full tilt of his gifts.