"If I was really stranded on a desert island, this novel would be good to have. The movie is also good, but the book would help to pass more time. Both make surviving on a desert island seem like a walk in the park. What’s great about this adventure—which I find rare in pop culture—is the celebration of the mind, invention, and science."

"Herr, who recently passed away, was one of the great prose stylists of the twentieth-century. Reading Herr is immensely instructive and hopeful; he always makes me feel that, yes, the English language can be used to interrogate any dilemma, no matter how complex. Herr’s rich, high-culture/pop-culture language and his stunning level of erudition allow him to put all doubts and counterarguments into play and create a sturdy mosaic of ambiguity, with an affectionate but skeptical mind at the center of it. I wish he was still with us and writing about this moment – there’s no one I would trust more."