SOURCE: Frank, Jeffrey A. “Confessions of a Young Man.” Washington Post Book World (7 April 1991): X5.

In the following review of A Model World, Frank maintains that Chabon's prose is “technically terrific,” but that his stories are narrow in scope and not very interesting.

One often hears, though usually several years after the fact, that an author's work was “reviewed respectfully.” Such a loaded phrase, and yet it perfectly sums up the spirit of some notices—including this one of Michael Chabon's new short-story collection.

Chabon is, in the technical sense, a terrific writer, able to come up with smart epigrammatic turns like these: “If you can still see how you once have loved a person, you are still in love; an extinct love is always wholly incredible.” And sharp glances of self-recognition: “He worried that his pants were too tight across the seat, that his gait was hitched...