Lee Siegel

“Now along comes Lee Siegel, who mixes a bit of Borges with some Nabokov and then adds an erotic gloss … pulled off with such unhinged élan by Mr. Siegel that it is also plain good fun, a clever, literate satire in which almost everything is both travestied and, strangely, loved by its author.” — The New York Times

“Funny, sexy, and surprisingly affecting.” — Booklist

“Siegel’s multilayer approach … can be taken as lightly or se­riously as the reader wishes. Read it for its sharply funny attack on reality-impaired scholars … or read it as a serious commentary on lust, love, intellectualism, the illusion of culture, and the culture of illusion.” — Austin Chronicle

“Siegel’s work stands out as a book that is not simply a novel but its own genus of rollicking, narrative scholarship … it is just the cerebral aphrodisiac we need.” — Salon

“Immensely clever and libidinously hilarious … bawdily intel­lectual pleasures and ludic stylistic features of this unique hypernarrative.” — Washington Post Book World

“The scope of Siegel’s erudition and humour makes his kalei­doscopic novel a most satisfying read.” — Financial Times

“Siegel’s novel succeeds because of its consistently funny, over-the-top prose.” — Toronto Globe and Mail

“While this ribald romp, satire on Westerners’ spiritual hunger, and sendup of academia may prove too rarefied and serpentine for some tastes, others will find it a sophisticated treat.” — Publishers Weekly

“A work of brilliance and originality that is both intellectually stimulating and hysterically funny … work that will delight anyone who cares about love … or the pleasures of language.” — Far Eastern Economic Review

“I felt like a balloon, tapped again and again into the air of laughter by the gentle, knowing hand of the author. A very, very funny book, a devastating satire.” — Wendy Doniger

“Siegel combines … themes with a savvy knowledge of pop culture … a wildly comic tale of romance and intrigue.” — National & Financial Post

“As a comic exploration of the multiple and varied ways that cultural languages create and distort romantic love, Mr. Siegel’s book may be without parallel. It is both wildly innovative and an aesthetic pleasure to read.” — Jeffery Paine

“Siegel spins a spiral disc of fascinating histories, captivating memoir, and mesmeric metafictions.” — Eliot Weinberger

“Siegel is adept at lacing outrageous storytelling with shrewd observations and exuberantly erudite eroticism as he celebrates and mocks humankind’s seemingly endless capacity for make-believe, chicanery, tomfoolery, adventure, and, yes, love.” — Booklist, starred review