Entertaining--if rather slight--essays. I enjoyed the book most when it was digging into Chabon's own past and writing process and least when it focused on literary criticism. (The one on his childhood in Columbia, MD, probably stuck in my mind the most, since I've spent a lot of time there.) Worth a read, but nothing I feel compelled to return to a second time. It worked pretty well as an audiobook, especially since several of the pieces were originally presented as speeches.