RaveThe Globe and Mail (CA)Consciousness is very much centre stage in The Infatuations, namely, the ways in which one\'s consciousness plays on the corporeal world – and the ways the consciousnesses of others play on one another – and vice versa ... Like in Marías\'s other novels (A Heart So White, for example, and the Your Face Tomorrow trilogy, his magnum opus) there is a sort of system of quotations that repeat, echoing and resonating like musical themes. Even the thoughts of characters recur in the thoughts and speech of other characters; there is a porousness to the consciousnesses Marías represents: sentences and souls intermingle and become entangled ... In addition to being psychologically penetrating, The Infatuations is a wonderful mystery, in which catastrophes are contingent and everything is mutable and, therefore, unpredictable. Marías keeps the reader guessing till the last page of this mesmerizing and vertiginous and, often, bone-chilling and hair-raising novel.
Gary Shteyngart
PositiveThe Globe and MailShteyngart shines in these chapters, where he mimics the inventive - though grammatically problematic - ways in which people compose e-mails etc. ... Although Shteyngart is clearly satirizing social-networking sites and the subliterate messages people post, he also simultaneously celebrates the creative use of language often found in digital communications. The crass and creative acronyms in this novel are convincing and hilarious, and, well, sad ... By slightly exaggerating and exacerbating the symptoms of our anxious, frenetic and insecure times, Shteyngart creates a frightening world, where problems of connecting, despite technology, exist more than ever. Super Sad True Love Story is a smart, funny and - it is true - sad satire that leaves one worried for the future.