"[Michael Chabon] has a captivating, fluid way of writing that surrounds and shields these bewildered people with descriptions and observations both apt and moving . . . When you read these stories, it may strike you how seldom you come across really beautiful writing . . . Chabon's writing is unique." --Susan Kelly, USA Today

"Mr. Chabon writes with enormous fluency in these pages, captivating the reader with his descriptive and metaphoric powers." --Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

"A loving craftsman and the author of superb, seemingly alchemically rendered sentences, Chabon has been producing pitch-perfect, at times even dazzling, fiction . . . While his language has relinquished none of its vividness, Chabon has mellowed it into an elegant vessel of irony and empathy." --Michael Carroll, Los Angeles Times Book Review