"An alarmingly perfect novel.... Barnes's verbal mimicry is inventive, accomplished, revelatory, and also fun." –
The New York Review of Books "Lively, lucid, ricocheting with wryly observed commentary on the human condition." –
Philadelphia Inquirer "Painfully astute.... Barnes sharpens his insights with his penetrating wit and verbal virtuosity." –
The Washington Post "Julian Barnes ... [is an] ironist, artificer, psychologically flirtatious pool shark, a maestro who runs the table with his Rashomon variations." –
The New York Times Book Review