"Don’t let the praise by highbrow critics scare you away from this 2004 story collection. We’re so much more likely to feel sympathy for an animal than for another person, thus the best fiction uses animals to define truly humane behavior. No one does this better than Joy Williams."

"If you are at all interested in what it’s like to work in the theatre, especially Broadway, this is the only book you need to read. It’s more fun (and accurate) than All About Eve and as someone who can recite Joseph Mankiewicz’s screenplay from memory that is high praise indeed."

"To get the most out of this book, you have to go in boldly, knowing it’s going to be dark and weird and confusing; knowing that not everything will add up, or even register entirely, the first time through. But that’s why you read it again. And again. That’s the highest praise I can offer these days: This is a book worth rereading."