An appealingly extravagant wit, " The Los Angeles Times. "Sheer intellectual bliss, " The Los Angeles Times. "A Passionate and erudite critique of American culture, " Library Journal. One man's time capsule, lovingly gathered and carefully packed and then deliberately dropped from a great height, shattering on impact into brilliant smithereens. A tender, funny, language-drunk mix of autobiography, confession, commonplace book, humanist battlecry, it's completely wonderful, " Michael Herr, author of Dispatches.