Groskop has continually surprising reflections, having steeped herself, in the meantime, in a dozen authors’ biographies. She isn’t trying to unearth new gems or evangelize for the overlooked; this is a star show about books and writers so famous that Groskop can compare them to celebrated films.

... offers the reader a handy shortcut through the hard graft of learning these lessons for oneself.

... witty and informative.

[Groskop] succeeds; not only in finding them in a quirky assortment of guises, but also, more importantly, in making the process of looking for them fun — which makes this book feel a bit like a game of hide and seek. So prepare to run rampage through the grand mansions of French literature, to rummage around in biographies, skedaddle through plots, overturning conventions and sending pomposity flying as you hunt down the secrets of human jollity.

Every chapter boasts amusing personal anecdotes.

... a lighthearted and insightful romp.

... [a] breezy, enthusiastic riff on 12 canonical (white, mostly male) writers.