MixedSan Francisco ChronicleMany writers suffer from the paralyzing spell of perfectionism, the terror of publishing and its revelation of the author’s shortcomings, which is why this book’s premise was so alluring. However, Tallent only scratches the surface of this predicament; it seems that she does not so much overcome her perfectionism as she is distracted from it ... Tallent’s book would have benefited from more of an outward glance. The book’s prose also suffers under the weight of her striving; page-long sentences tend toward beauty, but often buckle under her inability to simply let them be.
