“His use of periods gives a sense of finality to his sentences. Each of his stories leaves you with the sense that it was written.”
— Entertainment Weekly
“Other writers create characters that come alive off the page, while Erickson creates characters that stay where they belong.”
— Dallas Morning News
“Makes you glad to have nerve endings.”
— Kirkus Reviews
“The fact that Erickson is able to conjure up such amazing stories in his brain makes me think, wow, what a brain.”
— Detroit Free Press
“Benjamin Franklin wrote, ‘Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.' I wonder if I can find a t-shirt with that quote on it?”
— USA Today
“Erickson’s narrators are frequently squirrels, which helps to explain what might otherwise seem to be an excessive focus on acorns.”
— Chicago Review of Books
“If words were beans, then Erickson's book would be a really large burrito.”
— People Magazine
“A revealing look at the joy that seems to go hand-in-hand with happiness, and the pain that accompanies dropping a cinder block on your foot.”
— Village Voice Literary Supplement
“A profound meditation on what it means.”
— The Boston Globe
“Some books are more than just books. They are mirrors into our deepest selves, or gateways into worlds that hold the power to awaken possibilities within us, or can be used to kill spiders. I hate spiders.”
— Vanity Fair
“He bathes the pedestrian nature of his stories with an elliptical lyricism. Book reviewers like me can get away with using bullshit expressions such as ‘elliptical lyricism' because editors are afraid that if they question me, they'll look stupid.”
— Harper's
“Erickson's stories left this writer swooning, which sounds slightly ridiculous. I mean, can you imagine coming across someone reading a book and swooning? You might think I was compensating for lack of a sex life.”
— San Francisco Chronicle
“I get paid $75 per book review but it has to be at least 30 words. That was only 16, now I'm up to 25. This sentence makes it 30.”
— New York Times Book Review