PositiveThe Los Angeles Review of Books... sardonic, witty campus novel, which resembles Bright Lights, Big City in its speed and pithy tone ... The novel’s pace is a delightful and funny contrast to the indolence of Anna, who is nearing the eighth year of her PhD ... Because of Anna’s cynicism, Talent is a novel of cartoons...Like neon bumpers in a pinball machine, the characters impel the narrative into chaotic thrill ... Rather than force the Anna-Helen affair into a single classification, Lapidos appropriates the language of all of these arrangements to break through the definitions and limitations we expect when encountering them.