REVIEWS FOR THE WORLD WITHIN

"In informal interviews with colleagues, more than 20 writers sound off about their passions, pet peeves, literary inspirations and obstacles. Claribel Alegría describes to Debbie Fields her commitment to the Nicaraguan revolution and how politically conservative Salvadoran relatives burned her books; Deborah Eisenberg discusses with Anna Keesey the political ignorance of ordinary Americans and why she lacks the nerve for playwriting. Sherman Alexie explains to Bob Spillman how writing about Indian middle-class domesticity can be revolutionary and castigates Ian Frazier for colonial literature; Lydia Davis explores with Rick Moody her translation of Proust's Swann's Way, and Anita Desai reveals to Ben George that she hid her writing life from her young children and why there's so little sex in her works. Tin House laudably gives some well-deserved attention to a number of writers who aren't household names..."
—Publishers Weekly

"Taken in their totality, the interviews begin to snick against each other until it seems that the authors are sparring in some marvelous palaver, and that you, lucky reader, are a bystander at the greatest literary dinner party ever held."
—Nathan Ihara, LA Weekly

"It's a collection of interviews with writers that has an impossibly long subtitle and an equally high number of quality interviews."
—Jeff Baker, The Oregonian