The Washington Times, October 12th, 1997
We are living, as Joseph Epstein notes in "Life Sentences," in a time less and less literary, when that once-invoked "General Reader" is likely to be at the multiplex or a video-game arcade. The literary essay, then, might seem metaphorically homeless, sleeping in doorways and cadging cigarettes from passersby. To be sure, there are critics scribbling, but many of them, especially in the academic race-gender-class tent, are as readable as the contents list on a snack food.
For those, however, to whom literary oxygen is vital, a new Epstein collection is a sustaining joy. This is Mr. Epstein...
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