"The nonfiction Nobelist’s oral history of the aftermath of the disaster is among the handful of books I’ve read that were so heartbreaking, so bleak, so poetic, that I couldn’t stomach more than a few pages at a time. It’s literally radioactive and really did a number on me. Read at your own peril."

"This book brought me to poetry; I could never read it enough. Celan’s poems are a radiant reminder of the most desolate events that can attend humankind (i.e. the Holocaust, suicidal despair) and its most resplendent features (the near mystical possibilities of poetic language, of intimacy). “Single counter- / swimmer, you / count them, touch them / all.’”"

"Everything about this novel is poetic. From the ripe symbolism and haunting telling of true love, to witnessing the true liberation of a woman who has led a life dictated by societal pressures. The story of Janie is both insanely specific to her life and also a statement on the universal transformative stages of womanhood."

"In my opinion James Purdy is the most underrated writer in American literature, probably because he was gay. His books are heart wrenching, brutal and sometimes flat-out mean-spirited but they are also incredibly beautiful and endlessly poetic. I'm not all that fond of books that make me cry but in Purdy's case, I don't mind."