RaveThe Star TribuneLoitering is an ironic title for this masterful collection. There is nothing lax about D\'Ambrosio\'s writing or thinking; both are muscular and sophisticated. The Oregon essayist and short-story writer is at once an intellectual and a down-to-earth man whose humble, almost shabby persona pervades his highly recognizable work, which has taken on almost a cult status in some circles ... He intertwines ruminations on such subjects as J.D. Salinger\'s work and the psychology of teenagers in a Russian orphanage with deeply poignant laments about such personal sorrows as his father\'s madness and his brother\'s suicide ... His work is not always easy to navigate — his intellect is profound but labyrinthine, and his subjects are usually painful — but it is well worth the odyssey.
