"No critic gets closer to the text....Exhilarating." --The New York Times Book Review

"James Wood has been called our best young critic. This is not true. He is our best critic; he thinks with a sublime ferocity." --Cynthia Ozick

"A captivating collection...Wood enlightens and excites, informs and ignites disagreement. He sends readers back to novels with a heightened awareness of what makes fiction live and breathe." --San Francisco Chronicle

"Stirringly intimate...The fun of Wood's caliber of criticism is his shared enthusiasm. The thrill of these essays is the joy of vivid, intellectual collaboration." --Minneapolis Star Tribune

"Wood passes a crucial test of criticism: He is unfailingly interesting to read....He opens up new dimensions of the novel he's reading in a way that strands other critics in Flatland." --Chicago Tribune

"Nabokov famously recommended that 'as a reader, one should notice and fondle details, ' and Wood is something like the critical embodiment of this ideal....An excellent and necessary critic." --Slate