A wonderful book, just, balanced, insightful, complex in its sympathies and in its judgment of Sexton both as a person and as a writer... a deeply moving account."– The New York Times Book Review
"Judicious and canny. [Middlebrook] appreciates both Sexton's gifts as a poet and her attractive side as a human being...but looks at her destructive weaknesses with a steady eye." – Time
"Sympathetic but resolutely unsentimental ... intelligent, sensitive, at times harrowing." – Joyce Carol Oates, Washington Post Book World
