MixedThe New York Times Book ReviewA medley of tangled nonfiction and some very intriguing fiction, linked by mentions of prairies ... A richer, wilder book lurks in the wings; perhaps the novel Dutton didn’t have time to write? Her efforts seem less startling in the nonfiction sections, which read like revamped lectures or magazine articles ... As any good teacher might, Dutton confronts us with wide-ranging allusions, thoughts and imagery, daring us to be flexible enough to relate to just about anything. But we’re not her students. We want more than hints of what stirs her. We want the real deal.
Annie Ernaux, trans. Alison L. Strayer
MixedThe Telegraph (UK)Despite Ernaux’s efforts to demonstrate the significance of the liaison, this diminutive book seems slight. She never delivers. She’s holding out on us, obscuring subjective experience with silly details like the man’s taste in music (The Doors!) and lousy table manners (he chops up his spaghetti).
Tom Rachman
MixedThe Guardian (UK)Here he offers a convoluted study of a different sort of writer, the ageing novelist Dora, in a treatment that is not unfeeling, though needlessly contorted ... Individually, they are absorbing – but there’s a mystifying fluidity and self-regard to it all, with one unrelated thread leaching into another for no discernible reason. You can lead your readers to truncated plots, but can you make them care?
