"Marvelous. . . . Kennedy is a force of nature. . . . Everything she touches turns to art, and here, she continues to impress with her psychological fearlessness and breathtaking affection for language." --
The New York Times Book Review "Beautifully wrought. . . . Every story in
What Becomes is a stand-alone gem, presented with a sensibility that goes to Kennedy's Glasgow roots. She's a writer's writer, and deserves to be a reader's read." --
The Denver Post "There's a perpetual sense of danger in [Kennedy's] fiction, which is partly why it's so thrilling to read." --
San Francisco Chronicle
"Funny, angry, brilliant. . . . These are wonderfully textured pieces, varying from sentence to sentence, mood to mood, committed to capturing the precariousness and unsteadiness of individual mental landscapes." --
The Guardian (London)
"The hardest thing about the advent of a new collection of stories by A. L. Kennedy . . . is the search for synonyms for 'brilliant.' Her uncanny dialogue is as note-perfect as J. D. Salinger's, her vision as astutely bleak as Alice Munro's, and her ability to summon up a society in a few strokes rivals William Trevor's." --
The Spectator "Like a mirror reflecting our cracked souls. . . . A. L. Kennedy is painfully detailed about our human flaws and describes them so realistically, the reader dives into each sentence." --
Associated Press "Kennedy displays a biting lyricism that reduces Fitzgerald to nostalgia." --
The Boston Globe "[Kennedy] is rightly viewed as one of the most brilliant and eccentric writers of her generation. . . . Dazzling." --
The Times (London)
"Nothing shines light on the darkest corners of human existence like icy British irony." --
Los Angeles Times
"A. L. Kennedy is one of nature's Eeyores. . . . Like Eeyore, she's a born comic whose shtick is never to crack a smile once she has the room cracking up. These stories are peppered with precisely the sort of deadpan humor we resort to in extremis." --
The Independent (London)
"Kennedy . . . inhabit[s] her characters so fully that the reader feels the keenness of each new rejection. . . . A first-rate collection." --
The Telegraph (London)
"Arresting. . . . A writer who unsettles more often than she soothes, Kennedy ensures that nothing as longed for as simple happiness be taken for granted." --
The Toronto Star "Is it possible to be too good? In Kennedy's case, that's a very strong possibility. . . . Every story [in
What Becomes] is powerful, brilliantly written, wise and utterly unique. Perhaps more significantly, each story feels true, and mercilessly human. . . . [She] writes with a sharp, angular, incisive quality, a prose that looks direct and straightforward on the surface, only to wound with its undertones and subtleties." --
The Edmonton Journal "[Kennedy is an] experienced and confident writer who is not afraid to experiment, with language, voice, page layout. . . . These are the best kind of short stories, ones which make you half-smile as they cause you exquisite pain." --
The Short Review "
What Becomes is a tribute to the adventure of thought, in star-quality, unforgettable language." --
The Post and Courier "Deeply moving. . . . Kennedy knows how to write pain in all its stark detail, while managing to gently highlight the humor in the tragic reality of life." --
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)