“What separates Schjeldahl is the tangible sense in nearly every piece in this book — say 85 of the 100 — that something existential is at stake as he writes. The same sensation is present in Barthes and Sontag, his closest analogues to my mind, writers who, whatever their subject at a given moment, are desperately attempting to make something lucid out of this indecipherable life they’ve received without asking for it.” – The New York Times