PositiveToronto Star (UK)I wondered how soon readers would give up after reading just an iota of narration like \'Forget-Me-Not, Dogwood, Rose, rose madder, While Titian was mixing rose madder\' in a novel thicker than a brick ... The case could be made for considering Ducks less a novel proper than a work of art ... It’s an audacious, radically challenging document ... It’s not only massive, but complicated. It refuses, absolutely refuses, to be shorter than its epic size, and Ellmann is no tour guide holding our hands along the easiest path. Ducks is a technical masterpiece and kind of literary manifesto. And while vexing, it’s always intellectually stimulating ... Ducks, Newburyport can’t help but trigger conversations. For the completion-oriented, it’s a veritable test—aggravating, perplexing, engrossing, and, well, a staggeringly provocative work of genius.
