Be forewarned: it’s a collection of odds and ends. So, this book overall lacks the satisfying heft of a novel, but I laughed out loud at the essays that reminded me of his early novels. I encourage you to skip around a bit here. If you start reading a section and it isn’t speaking to you (like the art criticism), just move on to the next one. For me, the highlights were the travel essays, the bios, and the final section of “responses.”