'Hilarious and tender ... Meandering merrily along in the footsteps of the great classical essayists Montaigne and William Hazlitt, acclaimed cultural critic Lopate traipses breezily through family life and literary, cultural, social, and political matters ... with his typical elegance and peripatetic curiosity.' - Publishers Weekly 'What holds it together is an engaging voice, the projection of a curious, appealingly ... Read moremodest, sometimes self-mocking character behind that voice, and "the fluent play of a single consciousness." He's gifted at staging his inner conflicts, radiating intimacy without descending into the confessional.' - The New York Times Book Review Show Less