RaveThe New RepublicThis may sound like a story about how trauma begets dysfunction...but Porter does something fresher and more interesting than drawing a line between, say, a chaotic home life and bad behavior ... The distinctive fragmentary stream of consciousness style he has developed...fosters a close proximity between the reader and his characters and their emotional landscape. His technique of layering snatches of thought, memory, and feeling deftly, in a manner that feels instinctive, makes Shy’s perspective seem not only understandable but inevitable to the reader. But this success is also partly due to the immersive, compulsively readable quality of Porter’s writing ... There are unexpected flashes of humor throughout the book.
