RaveThe New York Daily News...humanely, Anatomy investigates our attempts to restore that sight, to escape from our solipsism, by trying to reach out and understand our fellow humans. These themes are vividly conveyed in the character of Alexander Bruno, one of the more distinctive protagonists in contemporary literature ... It sure sounds like an existential downer of a book, and for the first act, that seems like where Anatomy is headed. But Lethem is too masterful a craftsman to allow his novel to slide into any sort of monotonous despair ... in spite of its frequent trafficking in 'low' culture, Anatomy still packs in enough erudition and deep insight to put it in a league with the very best novels of the past few years.
Robin Wasserman
PositiveThe New York Daily News...[an] intriguing mix of dark literary sophistication and unadulterated teenage angst ... In many ways, the novel is reminiscent of the 1994 film, Heavenly Creatures, starring Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynskey. That film is another depiction of two misunderstood girls developing an obsessive friendship — one that isolates them from their community, with ultimately disastrous consequences. And I suppose Girls similarity to Creatures also highlights my main critique of the book: The characters never fully grow beyond the sorts of stereotypes that we have all seen a number of times before in other books and movies. Despite her impressive storytelling abilities and flights of dazzling lyrical prose, Wasserman doesn’t quite make a full-fledged foray into adult literature. However, if one wants a thrilling tale of the dark side of high school, and of the general angst of the grunge era, then Girls on Fire is a sure bet.
Darryl Pinckney
PositiveThe New York Daily News“Black Deutschland succeeds as a work of historical fiction, a rich rendering of a complex city and a complex individual. The lack of a straightforward narrative may be off-putting to readers looking for a nicely organized, resolved story, but as an exploration of the intersections of race, politics and sexuality during an important moment in history, it is an absorbing, terrifically constructed book.
