"A set of strange tales that both frustrate and delight...[Kelman] is certainly more experimental, as this...collection shows, and he's also a lot funnier. As well as being a keen observer of society's underclasses and disenfranchised, Kelman also has a great eye for the absurdity of everyday life, something which comes to the fore in this collection...His impeccable command of language continues to make him an easy writer to admire." –"The Independent"
"As always, [Kelman's] at his best when transforming a fairly narrow spectrum of underclass experience into something uniquely pitched between Beckett and vernacular realism." –"The Guardian
""A masterful composer, Kelman makes writing look easy, and then infuses it with a sense of gravitas that can be, at times, breathtaking, in his own modest way." –"Booklist" (starred review)
"This stuff is bloody brutal, and absolutely perfect." –"New City Lit
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"In Kelman's hands, words are deployed so seemingly realistically but, of course, so artfully, they feel closer to reality than hard truth. This collection is teeming with life, and with death, or worse, and, as the title indicates, it is our lives he is writing about, ours all. It is a tour de force from a writer who treats language as carefully as if it were gold, and ends up turning it into something even more precious." –"The Herald (Scotland)"
