RaveSlant MagazineBeyond replicating the back-and-forth nature of chess with an alternating chapter structure, A Partial History of Lost Causes turns out to bear a close resemblance to the experience of watching a chess match unfold ... Everything is cold, and a heaviness of spirit pervades, and a lot of visible thought takes place, resulting in a sequence of movement that, no matter how brooded over, always happens too fast to see coming until it’s too late. There are some brilliant passages and more compulsive ones, culminating in an ending as quick and satisfying as a checkmate—defeat finally having arrived for one, and survival continued for the other.
