"An astoundingly tuned voice — graceful, dark, authentic, and funny — telling just the kind of stories we need to get through these times.
—Thomas Pynchon

"The dystopian short story is alive and kicking, wearing a black leather jacket — maybe stolen in a barroom brawl — and telling deadly-dark, off-color jokes. His name is George Saunders, and he's half-huckster, half-saint; he's got shades of both Denis Johnson and Raymond Chandler... By turns he's ferocious, witty, and uproarious, but what makes his fiction memorable is the gravitas of its dark portraiture of America."
—The Boston Globe

"Ingenious... full of savage humor and originality [and] scorching brilliance... the author creates a nightmarish post-apocalyptic world that might have been envisioned by Walt Disney on acid."
—The Philadelphia Inquirer

"Alarming [and] funny... More satirist than futurist, Saunders invites comparison less to Aldous Huxley than to Kurt Vonnegut...This is George Saunders's first book, and it is a debut of an original, darkly funny voice from whom we can hope to hear more."
—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"Scary, hilarious, and unforgettable... George Saunders is a writer of arresting brilliance and originality."
—Tobias Wolff

This book is a rare event: a brilliant new satirist bursting out of the gate in full stride, wildly funny, pure, generous — all that a great humorist should be.
—Garrison Keillor