Critical Praise

"Entertaining and moving. . . . Can be read with sheer pleasure not only for the delicacy of its emotions but for the truth of its perceptions. Like saying goodbye to a good friend, it's hard to see this brilliant novel come to an end."

——The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

"Its pleasures are endless. . . . Supremely entertaining."

——The Washington Post Book World

"Boyd has an exceptional ability to tell a really compelling story, in dense imaginative detail, about characters with complex, and convincing, emotional lives. . . . I've already read this book twice and probably shall again. Of how many novels can that be said?"

——Peter Green, Los Angeles Times Book Review

"The sort of rare novel that redeems the essential purpose of prose fiction. . . . A high celebration of the plain fun of a life lived with relentless appetite and reasonable grace."

——The Baltimore Sun