The pieces, in one way or another, express the joy of writing and offer advice, direct and indirect, on leading a life well lived. There is a certain random quality to the selection, and the book is not even Rosenblatt’s first on writing (in 2011, he published a similar collection ... But Rosenblatt’s writing brims with creativity and insight, and the casual browser will be richly rewarded ... Rosenblatt is so effortlessly charming that one wonders if it doesn’t come a little too easy. But then, the reader learns that this golden boy of letters has suffered a truly terrible and shocking loss ... His knack, as I recall from my days at Time, was to see what everyone else saw, only, somehow, more clearly and more movingly.
Rosenblatt is not a man stooped by modesty ... Just when you’re tempted to throw Rosenblatt’s book into the bin marked Egoistic Excess, you land on words that expand your heart ... This book of writing fragments — some chapters are a page, others a paragraph — is not to be read for instruction. Rather, it’s a hymn of praise for the craft of weaving words in order to survive, which Roger Rosenblatt sings to himself with style and grace.
Rosenblatt...scoured through his back catalog to produce this delightful collection of short pieces, which include excerpts from his novels and memoirs (some previously unpublished) and selections of his essays ... Though Rosenblatt writes of his desire to avoid obvious connections, thematic links nonetheless emerge ... The brevity of the excerpts makes the book challenging to read cover to cover, but readers who dip in for short visits will be rewarded. By turns funny, acerbic, and wistful, this collection will provide Rosenblatt’s many fans with much to delight them.
