"James Wood is perhaps one of the most intelligent and passionate literary critics working today . . . In its entirety this is a masterful 'greatest hits' collection . . . One has the very strong sense that no essay placement was accidental . . . They are independent pieces, and it is easy enough to read any particular essay in any order, but there is a certain, almost meditative, pleasure in reading the book cover to cover." --Angela M. Giles, Los Angeles Review of Books

"Two voices vie in [Serious Noticing] . . . the professor, stately and composed, guiding the reader through forensically close readings of the text, pointing out fiction's innovations and revolutions--the "failed privacies" of Chekhov's characters, the "unwrapped" consciousness in Virginia Woolf's novels. The other voice--pitched about half an octave higher, blunt, reedy, very winning -- pops up in the essays . . . The reviews and essays settle into a rolling rhythm, pleasing counterpoints." --Parul Sehgal, The New York Times Book Review

"[Serious Noticing] is in effect a super-selection: The Best of . . . perhaps, or Wood on Wood, complete with an introductory account of his formation and general understanding of the practice of criticism . . . [Wood] has a notable capacity for articulate enthusiasm and a withering tongue to balance it." --Francis Mulhern, New Left Review

"What makes Wood . . . formidable? The most obvious answer is the crackling sensuousness of his prose. He writes unusually tactile criticism, thick with images you can almost reach out and grasp. . . With criticism like this, who needs fiction?" --Becca Rothfeld, Bookforum

"In the unspooling sentences and paragraphs of the many fine and often seriously dandy essays that follow in this collection . . . Wood shows himself a maestro of tone and inflection. His sustained close attention as he interrogates the writers he loves is genuinely something to behold . . . Wood set off writing in that high canonical tradition that sought to replace Bible study with practical criticism and preachers with English teachers.'" --Tim Adams, Observer