SOURCE: Solomon, Chris. “Werewolves: Life Stories with Bite.” Seattle Times (7 February 1999): M10.

In the following review, Solomon asserts that the stories in Werewolves in Their Youth are funny and well-crafted.

Disturbing and glib, outrageous, sad and poetic at turns, Michael Chabon's stories embrace the major heartbreaks and minor debacles that congeal into, well, life—though it is a life Chabon's characters would never have chosen had they seen it coming.

Regret, and then something that passes for acceptance and fragile hope, abound in Chabon's new collection, Werewolves in Their Youth. Frequently very funny and always told with precise, astringent prose, these nine stories may be his best work yet. That says a great deal, for the author is his own hardest act to follow. Each of Chabon's previous books—The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, A Model World and Wonder Boys—presented readers with jumbled young lives in various stages...