RaveThe Kansas City StarThe bloodlust is palpable throughout House of Names, and the body count is high ... All this unbridled rage is tempered by sections that detail Orestes’ years in hiding at the end of the world in an elderly woman’s cottage. Tóibín is at his most inventive here, and the plot veers sharply from canon. One of the most surprising and successful changes made in this retelling is the absence of the Greek pantheon of gods ... It is no easy feat, but this fascinating and unique work demands that we see these characters afresh as real people, over two and a half millennia later.
Dani Shapiro
RaveThe Kansas City StarImbued with tender revelations, Hourglass considers the ever-changing nature of love and identity ... Shapiro deftly binds observations and memories in a way that mimics the unpredictable, seemingly random turns of the human mind while underlying stories unfold throughout the memoir. The past, present and future of her marriage coexist on the page with profound resonance ... Hourglass is a deeply moving work that is simultaneously an intimate and universal reflection on marriage.
