RaveThe New York Times Book ReviewQuatro alchemizes gloomy subject matter...into transcendent beauty ... Rather than pitting these seeming polarities against each other, Quatro skillfully mines the gray areas between them, the realms of ambiguity that are far more indicative of the human experience ... Theologically avant-garde and emotionally supple.
Bret Easton Ellis
MixedThe New York Times Book Review\"Ellis is a true literary craftsman, and the novel’s imagery is lush and gorgeous. Fans of his earlier fiction...will enjoy many of his signature strokes: murder, music, cocaine, Valium, obscene wealth, an unraveling narrator, brand names, palm trees, blood, stalkers, dogs, cults, disaffected teenagers, negligent parents. But there is an exciting new vulnerability in Ellis’s latest book, inviting the reader more profoundly into the emotional realm of the protagonist than he has with his previous characters ... The Shards feels earnest, at least emotionally. This is also Ellis’s sexiest book, and one senses for the writer a new freedom in the dimensions of love, eros and sensitivity ... the length and repetitions can be so taxing that the reader wonders if the book could have been shorter and still achieved the same psychedelic, collage-like effect. For all the narrative investment it demands, the novel’s climax and denouement ultimately fall flat.\
John Moe
PositiveThe New York Times Book Review... could be a particularly useful tool for those who grew up in homes where seeking therapy was seen as weakness, those who don’t have the language for mental illness, and particularly for men age 50 and older. If you’re looking for a Father’s Day book for a depressed dad who is aware of his condition but averse to seeking treatment, this is the one ... Moe’s humor is more universally astute when describing the depressive’s propensity for faulty reasoning, particularly in terms of negative self-attribution and self-defeating thoughts ... This exploration of impostor syndrome is where the book really shines ... Unfortunately, these sound bites often feel cursory — small blips in Moe’s overarching narrative. The book would be better served if it included longer, deeper takes from these podcast guests ... Yet the message of the book is a good one: that mental illness is not a cause for shame, and that sharing honestly (and even humorously) with fellow sufferers can be a path to healing. If there are readers out there who still believe, as Moe once did, that \'mental illness is for people in the booby hatch doing sad craft projects with safety scissors\' as in Girl, Interrupted, this book could be their path to deeper understanding and openness, by way of laughter in the dark.
James Frey
PanThe New York Times Book Review\"James Frey’s first adult novel in 10 years, claims Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer as its literary North Star...Unfortunately, Jay’s Paris lacks the soul, guts and groin of Miller’s rendering, reading more like a student’s account of his study abroad ... Even when wet, Katerina is ever the dry fantasy, tossing off orgasm after orgasm from penetration alone. Each of Jay’s women — and there are several in the book—is also suspiciously easily-turned-on. A quickie against a car with a college ex results in simultaneous orgasms that leave her \'shaking.\' One wonders if our protagonist knows what cunnilingus is at all? ... Jay’s libertine dreams similarly leave the reader cold. He frequently professes a desire to \'burn the world down,\' but one wonders which world he is talking about exactly ... With Katerina, the question of autobiography doesn’t matter so much. Regardless of how true this tale is to Frey’s own personal story, the fictional version cries out for a richer, more succulent imagining.\
Leo Benedictus
PositiveThe New York Times Book Review...creepily thought-provoking ... self-reflective ... The narrator, who is the supposed \'author\' of the book before us — a memoir of his deeds as a stalker — befriends us. He invites us to engage with his inner dialogue. He is not overly charming, but still intelligent ... Read Me is constructed not as a linear tale but rather in layers, sometimes recounting what the narrator actually sees and at others deploying an assumed omniscience. At times it’s unclear whether the narrator is simply imagining Frances’ life or whether what he describes is actually occurring.
Eileen Myles
RaveBookforumAfterglow portrays a complex and often hilarious relationship between two animals, characterized by love and a deep interrogation of power, creativity, and point of view ... Of all the human foibles examined in the book, it is our inability to live in a moment—for the moment—that is most profoundly explored. Some writers portray the experience of raising a child as an opportunity to live a second childhood, at least vicariously. For Myles, it’s a dog that becomes the surrogate, or perhaps the midwife, for a sort of vicarious enlightenment ... Throughout the book, Myles accentuates and diminishes the distance between the multiplying voices and styles. Afterglow becomes an ever-deepening investigation into the nature of human-being-ness, self-knowledge, and knowing things outside of yourself ... A book that’s wise to miscommunication but hungry to overcome it, Afterglow celebrates that rare authorial ability to get out of one’s own way and show us a singular and limber mind roaming free.
