RavePublishing PerspectivesThe Possessed, a collection of essays that can best be described as a series of academic misadventure stories, is possibly the best thing to come out of a graduate program in recent years ... She wears her knowledge lightly, while at the same time still conveying her passion for the books and the people who made them ... By writing about her personal experiences with such charm, Batuman manages to make literature accessible in a way few critics can: She loves the Russians, and because, over the course of the book, you come to love her a little bit, you come to love the Russians as well.
Adam Haslett
PositiveThe Dallas Morning NewsHaslett is especially adept at depicting the obsessive male psyche in the midst of meltdown, whether over relationships or music or while on drugs ... In contrast, Haslett’s female characters are less vivid than the men, though this may be by design. They alleviate the threat of exhausting the reader as they endure bout after bout of intense male mental drama, grounding the book back in reality — which makes the story of the men all the more wrenching. Imagine Me Gone is not always easy to read. You’ve been warned, male readers: The moments when you are in Michael’s mind might make you fear your own. But as this is also a series of deft vignettes of paternal, maternal and filial love, you too will likely be moved to recall your family with a new fondness and understanding.
