“[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