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 The book does not have the dramatic urgency of Another Country by James Baldwin, or the metaphorical richness of Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. Its strength is in the presentation of a complex, sophisticated mind, full of deliberations, fact, reference.
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 The author does answer all the questions I had about Genghis Khan before reading this book and more than that. Along the way he also cites primary source references to support his story. I gained a good appreciation of the life and times of Genghis Khan. He was a survivor of the Mongolian steppe traditions and this means to overcome many dangerous obstacles, such as defending his life from other potential Mongol warlord leaders.
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 Though it’s quick and easy, and the reader might end up wondering whether anything happened at all, on reflection, Maryanne’s journey is one that all modern folk might benefit from taking. It’s a journey that involves shedding the daily grind of doing in favour of time to take long baths, long walks, observe and listen. A Year of Cats and Dogs is funny and spiritual in the most pragmatic sense – a satisfying, and pleasurable read.
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 These are bitter stories. All of the men, women, and children of the stories are imprisoned by circumstances. Redemption for the reader is in Cummins’s pitiless depiction of his doomed characters. Truth is what matters and he makes truth transcendent.
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 Obviously a short book, it could have been better by being shorter, more selective, but this a minor consideration. When there are so few books that have quality of this kind, one accepts readily what the author gives us. And what Rasmussen gives us is mostly splendid indeed.
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 Hilburn does have the special gift of getting behind the glitz and glamour of these famous stars and merely starting conversations with the person. He says in several places throughout the book that he was often assigned interviews at the last minute at the artist’s request, and rather than conduct a proper interview with microphones or tape recorders, he and the artist simply had a conversation, Hilburn jotting down notes and important quotes as they talked.
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 Language is used here as talisman – a means for escaping the ugliness of the present into something bigger and, if not better, more powerful. Rhythm and alliteration are used expertly, to create partial rhymes and a song-like metre that mirrors meaning.
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 There are so many subtle parallels, transitions, symbols, and correspondences in this wonderful, rich novel. Edmund’s lighthearted romp creates a powerful impression of deep meaning, but the work is so funny and, at times, absurd, that you can’t help enjoying yourself.
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 Conan Doyle is, of course, a great storyteller and his sense of place (above all, Victorian London) and character (Victorian personages and eccentrics of myriad description, as well as the immortal figures of Holmes and Watson) remains unsurpassed; he gives the reader far more than simply a series of puzzles to solve.
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 The plot is a braid of subplots set in three time periods, 1949, 1999 and 2009. The time-travelling aspect, though restricted to a few characters, raises opportunities for intriguing recursion events, cleverly executed. Instead of shying from the time-paradox issues, Larken employs them so that the same person not only meets himself, but ... ah, you wait and see.
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