“In a style reminiscent of Orwell, E.B. White and David Sedaris, an affable hero gamely bumbles through adventures rich with moments of fleeting profundity and moral reckoning…his depictions of the arc from ignorance to wisdom are reliably deft…Kreider is a curious and compassionate observer and a fantastic wit—I laughed to tears more than once….pleasurable, well-wrought essays.”
– New York Times Book Review
“Tim Kreider’s voice is never anything less than honest, smart, and hilarious; in I Wrote This Book Because I Love You he is even more mordant and empathetic than ever before. What a sad and beautiful book.”
– Lauren Groff, author of Fates and Furies and Arcadia
“Tim Kreider’s wonderfully frank, consistently funny essays reminded me at a time of spectacular doubt that there might still be a few men in America who are both weird and wise, equally friendly to cats and ex-girlfriends, and refreshingly willing to admit to flaws that come entirely free of vindictiveness and cruelty. In an age of widespread buffoonery, it’s a pleasure and a relief to have Kreider restore a little faith.”
– Joshua Ferris, author of Then We Came to The End and The Dinner Party
“Not only smart, but admission-against-interest honest—a winning combination, and rare.”
– Lionel Shriver, author of We Need to Talk About Kevin and The Post-Birthday World
“Tim Kreider is one of my favorite living writers, no exaggeration…His wisdom is counterintuitive and therefore all the wiser; his humor is dark in ways that let light in where it’s needed most. This isn’t a book about one man’s relationship to women as much as it’s a chart of the collision course of human need in all its wrenching, perverse, gorgeous, hilarious forms. It’s his best stuff yet.”
– Meghan Daum, author of The Unspeakable: And Other Subjects of Discussion
“A talented writer…[Tim Kreider’s] essays are beautifully written, with just enough humor to
balance his spikiness, and will please lovers of fine writing.”
– Booklist
“Kreider isn’t solely a humorist; he’s also part philosopher, part psychologist, part poet. Paired with
his depth of insight into the human condition and startlingly sharp observations, this intimate collection is as hilarious as it is poignant, as it explores what it means to love and be loved—even if it’s love shared with your 19-year-old cat.”
– Baltimore Magazine
“The theme running through this book’s dozen essays is Kreider’s relationships with women,
platonic and romantic, and he recounts them with wonderfully self-deprecating wit and considerable insight.”
– Tampa Bay Times
“Kreider is…an inimitable American essayist. He reliably, intelligently, wittily states the hesitated-
over, the unspoken, the perhaps, the after-last-call-drunken-theory-of-the-universe that actually
might have been brilliant…His ideas are sometimes risky or incomplete, but I’ve almost never
encountered them anywhere else; in style, he sits on the shelf between the quick humor of Dave
Barry and the gentle, erudite persuasion of Virginia Woolf. When reading Tim Kreider, I feel as if
he’s stated what’s already in my mind.”
– Another Chicago Magazine
“Much of the collection’s strength comes from wry ruminations on his non-romantic
relationships…Kreider’s observations cut deep, sharply delivered in the midst of what he might
sometimes call ‘mush.’ It’s no surprise that David Foster Wallace declared, ‘Kreider rules,’ or that
Kreider counts Richard Russo and Judd Apatow as fans. His precision and candor coexist like a just-
sharpened razor slicing into soft fruit, sweet, lovely, messy and sustaining.”
– Shelf Awareness
“Come for the arresting cover, stay for the author’s trenchant ruminations on his relationships with
women…Like all the best essayists, Kreider finds words for the ineffable…he’ll open your eyes to the
many varieties of love.”
– People
“Kreider deploys an extremely self-deprecating tone, which comes across as appealing and
humorous and, sometimes, laugh-out-loud funny. The pieces are piercingly, painfully reflective…an
artful example of how the deeply personal can also be the broadly general.”
– Kirkus Review
“Kreider returns with another incisive and cutting collection of essays, this time loosely focused on
the women in his life. This collection is noteworthy not so much for the insights into dating or
women, but rather for Kreider’s humane outlook coupled with his often-wry sense of humor…[his]
clever hand and philosophic—rather than solipsistic—viewpoint place him in a different realm.”
– Publishers Weekly
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