"This book is a gem. A memoir in the form of free-associative prose poetry, it’s deceptively simple and spare. Brainard’s collage of matter-of-fact remembrances creates a rich and tender portrait of the writer, his time and place, and magically mirrors the reader’s equivalent humanity."

"As in all of Yates’s books, the characters are modeled after people in his life, and this book is primarily about his mother. It’s like August: Osage County, if it were set on Long Island in the 1930s. The story may be bleak and hopeless, but Yates’s prose is unpretentious and irresistible."

"The lives of ordinary people in a second rate city are given depth and tragic resonance in sensually realized prose. “The Dead,” in particular succeeds in rendering a perfectly realistic scene: a holiday party, brilliantly capturing different voices and registers, and then wallops us with a vision of life, love, death and meaning."

"Pachinko is the novel I tell anyone who will listen about. It is a multigenerational, sweeping saga of Koreans in Japan. The prose is as edifying as it is absorbing. There are no easy, convenient endings for any of these characters but my goodness, how richly Min Jin Lee renders their lives."

"Pachinko” is the novel I tell anyone who will listen about. It is a multigenerational, sweeping saga of Koreans in Japan. The prose is as edifying as it is absorbing. There are no easy, convenient endings for any of these characters but my goodness, how richly Min Jin Lee renders their lives."

"Okay, yeah, I did play Birdy in the film directed by the always amazing Sir Alan Parker. If you saw the movie, you should read the book. The hypnotic magic of Wharton’s prose is pure poetry. After you read the book, watch, or re-watch the film and see how right we actually got it."