The finest and funniest writer the past century ever knew

Sublime comic genius

This group of previously unpublished stories by Pulitzer Prize-winner William Styron crackle with youthful virtuosity

What intrigues here is the way all soldiers, whether or not they ever see combat, still live with the notion: I am expendable canon fodder. And that sort of existential knowledge makes even the toughest Marine pause for thought

This book will be welcomed by admirers of Styron's work

There's such a depth to the characterization and mood here, with doubt, guilt, bravado, lust and more to be felt by the heroes, who of course never fit any such token template

Styron's ornate prose has a wonderful rhythmic flow. The title story, a sultry, white-knuckle sex odyssey across the US, is a particular gem. Told with a frenetic humour that bleeds out into lyrical disquiet, it paints a vivid picture of young men trying in vain to drown out their own death knell

A writer of uncanny power

Ian McEwan writes to shock and succeeds... All his stories have a feeling of impending evil - it is a tour de force of concision, and funny, too, in a deadpan manner

His writing is exact, tender, funny, voluptuous, disturbing

A brilliant performance

The Maestro

McEwan has - a style and a vision of life of his own... No one interested in the state and mood of contemporary Britain can afford not to read him

A sparkling and adventurous writer