"The very first pages of this violent book mesmerized me. I read it in my 30s and was fascinated by Camus’ simple and direct language. Given the increasing xenophobic tendencies in the world nowadays, the book is very topical."

"This unjustly forgotten 1980 novel is unlike anything else: Its portrait of a world after a nuclear holocaust — the explosion of the “1 Big 1″ — is written in language that’s brilliantly fractured, as if a bomb has exploded there as well."

"A book on collective nouns that I read from often, and I wish more people knew about it. I am madly in love with collective nouns! They make language so colorful and ticklish. I love throwing them into casual conversation."

"Another teenage passion I have not outgrown but grown into, even if I have lost the faith that sustained him through good and ill. One of the great hearers, feelers, and observers, with a passionate language world all his own."

"It begins, “He, for their could be no doubt about his sex…” and then we spend the rest of this gorgeous rollicking novel entirely in doubt about his sex. A love-letter to language, a time traveling duel with duality."