“Wonderful, essential . . . compelling and often astonishing. The stakes always feel high (characters can die and do die), and there's no such thing as a not-funny McGuane story. The result is a continuous succession of storytelling delights.”
—Gabe Habash, The Los Angeles Times

“[An] outstanding career-capping volume, , , , Brief, stormy, and refreshing, McGuane’s stories erupt like the namesake of this marvelous collection.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred, boxed review)

“Powerful… Damn funny… McGuane is a master, choosing his words with a lapidary’s precision and setting them in sentences that burn brightly, finishing his stories with epiphanies to treasure…One of our finest living short-story writers.”
—Booklist (starred review)

“A career-spanning collection of short stories from McGuane, who’s observed America's outskirts with equal measures of pathos and humor...Putting all these stories in one place also spotlights the evolution of his prose over time. In his early stories, he could pull off a Cheever-esque domestic drama like “The Millionaire,” about a family secreting away their pregnant teenage daughter at a summer home...The newer stories, by contrast, are at once sturdier and more sensitive...A stellar writer on the outdoors who’s gotten better at describing interior wildernesses over time.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)